“‘Let me see her eyes. Please please, let Maverick meet her alive.’ Before I knew it, I heard, ‘Happy Birthday!’ Huh? She’s here? Why don’t I hear crying? I couldn’t see anything beside the ceiling, doctors moving around. ‘Is she breathing? Is she?’ Tears were flowing from my eyes. She smiled at her brother and her daddy. She waited until we got one more kiss.”
‘Legs are bowed. All bones, bowed. Extremely short.’ I felt my heart sink. ‘I don’t see the point in continuing. You can end it now, quickly.’: Family cherishes 29 hours with Osteogenesis Imperfecta warrior
‘We promised him he could die at home. Every mile felt like 100. I live with the ‘what-ifs.’: Widow recalls dying husband’s last journey with cancer, ‘I know he is free’
“Driving him home was an out of body experience. I have driven those interstates many times in the past, but never had I driven someone I love to die.”
‘A flu-like bug started spreading. ‘You’re black and strong, nothing will happen to you.’ The healthy white girl got her own room instead.’: Dancer powerfully explains ‘I will never color my shoes’
“The makeup artist takes 30 minutes to figure out my foundation color. The theaters ask me to find my own flesh-toned tights and undies because ‘they don’t know where to get my color.’ I do my own hair because the ladies don’t know what to do with my curls. I will NEVER COLOR my shoes.”
‘It’s not remarkable to talk publicly about it. I don’t feel brave. We aren’t the ones who did something wrong.’: Mom and 2 daughters experience sexual assault, ‘All 3 of us are survivors’
“I don’t feel brave in sharing my story of sexual assault or the assault of our daughters. I feel afraid of what happens if we don’t. I’m claiming my story and revealing HIS shame.”
‘I hired a private detective. ‘For a few hundred more bucks, I can bring you face to face with your mother.’ Every time the phone rang, I hoped it was her missing me.’: Woman details life with addicted mother, ‘I vowed to be the best mom I can be’
“The doorbell rang at 6 a.m. I opened the door to see my mom standing between two policemen, muddy and handcuffed. She’d call me ‘Bucky,’ knowing I was self-conscious about my teeth. When I was 19 and getting married, no mom. When I was 20 and having my first baby, no mom. I had the same phone number for several years, but she never dialed it again.”
‘What do you MEAN you did chest compressions?’ I screamed. I won’t ever forget that call.’: Woman births micro preemie with pulmonary hypertension, ‘He never stopped fighting’
“I screamed in agony, convinced they would soon be bringing me back my tiny baby with looks of ‘there’s nothing we can do’ in their eyes. ‘His lungs are bad. Nothing is off the table.’ I kept asking for clarification about what ‘nothing’ meant.”
‘I woke up at 4 a.m. and shook Logan to wake up — this was it! He handed me his spoon to use and I sobbed.’: Couple share experience with PCOS, ‘It was something I’d never even heard of’
“When I was first diagnosed with PCOS, it was something I had never even heard of. I thought the doctor had to be wrong. I’ll be the first to admit, I’m guilty of keeping our secret for far too long.”
‘As they rolled her away, she said, ‘Mama, hold my hand.’ I can’t go with her. I lost it.’: 3-year-old with kidney disease, stage IV liver cancer gets ‘second chance’ from organ donor
“The waiting was the hardest part. Watching your child deteriorate, lose their hair, weight, and energy while you sit back hopelessly forever changes you as a person. ‘They found a match.’ I knew she had a fighting chance to survive.”
‘You’ll probably never see me again, but I wanted to say thank you for your service.’ He was about to move 3,000 miles away. My heart took over.’: Woman meets love of her life in Starbucks after act of kindness
“My jaw dropped as he walked in. ‘Wow, he is handsome!’ I brushed it off, knowing it wasn’t going to happen. People would ask, ‘When are you two getting together?!’ Days later, Chaz texted me: ‘Hey, let’s talk.’ I knew this was it. The ball was in his court. I was eager to know if there was an ‘us.’ I did everything I could to avoid sobbing right there, in the middle of Starbucks.”
‘I see blood on me, but from where?! It’s 2:15 a.m. now, and I’m crying in the bathroom. I don’t like hurting out loud. What was this doing to us?’: Woman struggles with ‘mental hurricane’ during undiagnosed illness
“I’m scared.’ I shook and started crying from the sharp pains. My hand cramped up; I couldn’t open it anymore. ‘I’m here, and I got this, and I got you.'”
‘We’re so lucky your dad still has his job.’ I don’t know how we’ll do it another day, another week, another year.’: Mom of special needs son says ‘being his caregiver is a whole life job’
“Most children don’t depend on their parents for everything their entire lives. We always worry about illness. He’s nonverbal, cannot walk, has a feeding tube, and recently has been diagnosed with a seizure disorder. But then, I look at Christopher and smile.”
‘How adorable,’ they say about our daughter. They stop us with compliments, but cross the street when Walter walks alone.’: Woman interracial couple says ‘we want our hearts to be seen’
“My husband goes out of his way to be nice and talk to EVERYONE. Not because he’s a people person, but because he’s learned a 6’5 Black man must overcompensate so people won’t be afraid of him.”
‘This isn’t the place for me. I just don’t fit in.’ He didn’t want to be adopted. We were broken.’: After foster heartbreak, couple adopt teenage boy, ‘He was given to us in our most desperate hour’
“’I just don’t fit here.’ He didn’t feel like he was good enough for us. We felt the weight during the entire process of trying to hold it all together. We questioned if we EVER wanted to be parents. I asked Joel, ‘Do you want to hear about another kid?’ He nodded. ‘Yes.’”
‘If someone, anyone, put their knee on one of my boys’ necks for 9 minutes, I’d burn it all down.’: White mom talks privilege, ‘You would do the same for your white babies’
“You know you would, too. But we, as white bodies in this country, have the privilege of having only to imagine it.”
‘He’s different from the others. You know what I mean.’ We woke to a noose hanging in our yard.’: Military wife talks difficulties of interracial relationship, ‘We all need to speak up’
“When we traveled together, the flight attendant asked us and ONLY us if we belonged together. They see a black man. They don’t know he spent half of his life serving this nation.”
‘I saw you pushing a stroller with a pink princess backpack hanging off your shoulder, your daughter giggling as you made silly sounds.’: Woman pens ode to black fathers, ‘Your love is as endless as your potential’
“I saw you verbally tap dance when the police pulled you over, carefully annunciating every syllable and narrating your movements. We locked eyes. Black father, you walk through a world where you’re stereotyped to death, but you still rise.”
‘Even though your vacations may not look or go as you planned make it happen.’: Mom of special needs kids says ‘let go of your vacation expectations’
“I pulled my daughter off a 10-story ledge. I made sure my son was breathing. It was exhausting. As I relaxed on the beach in the shade with my feet up reading a book, I realized I needed to tell you something… vacations won’t look like the vacations from your childhood.”
‘She stands with me on the ledge, not above it. She watches the kids so I can do a Target run. She’s the door I never have to knock on.’: Woman shares ode to best friend
“My husband indulges my dramatic stories, but she’ll ask me to tell it again. He knows what I want in my future, but she knows all the secrets of my past. Marriage is wonderful, parenthood is a blessing, but a friendship that spans that entire journey is like nothing else.”
‘Thank you for choosing me. Thank you for making me ‘Daddy’ to the most amazing kids on earth.’: Widower shares emotional thank you letter to late wife on Father’s Day
“I hate so much that you’re not here right now, but I’m so lucky I get to be Daddy and Mommy for this season. Not a day goes by we don’t talk about you.”
‘I was talking with a friend. I take a deep breath. My 1, 4, and 6 year-olds couldn’t ‘intentionally manipulate’ me.’: Mom discusses the psychology behind children and food
“Fortunately, I DO have the ability. It had been a huge learning curve for my husband who was required to eat foods that make him gag. The brain is good at making associations.”
‘Why are all the other kids her age able to turn and look at their parents?’ I chalked it up to me doing something wrong.’: Mom to daughter with autism says ‘find love in your heart not to judge’
“I sat there, trying to hold back my tears. ‘What does this mean? What about her unborn sister? Will she have friends?’ I couldn’t take it anymore. I just sat there and let the tears flow down my cheeks as my daughter stood in between my legs. I stroked her hair, feeling so afraid for her future.”
‘I kept getting UTIs. My male doctor said, ‘Do you think the pain might be ALL IN YOUR HEAD?’ I was mortified.’: Woman with chronic urinary tract infections urges ‘you are not alone’
“I’d receive a 3-day course of antibiotics and be sent on my way. It would clear up, but come back with vengeance. I was told it was ‘just because I was WITH my boyfriend.’ Fair enough, sex can be a cause, but what did other people do? Stay single for the rest of their life? I was at a loss. All the doctors suggested I was exaggerating.”
‘I heard, ‘One, two, three, four!’ I asked, ‘What are you counting?!’ The cord was wrapped around his neck four TIMES!’: After complicated birth, mom thankful for ‘miracle baby’
“‘You should buy a lottery ticket,’ they told me. I thought it was strange nothing was happening. The odds were definitely stacked against us. ‘Miracle baby,’ they called him.”
‘Today my little sister received her school yearbook. She was intentionally left out due to her differences in ability.’: Sister to student with Down syndrome advocates for inclusion, ‘There is no excuse’
“Since the 2,500+ students and faculty didn’t get the honor of seeing Glenda’s yearbook photo, at least the internet can.”
‘We married ‘outside of our race.’ We get hateful stares, slurs. Still, we will continue to love one another and grow stronger.’: Woman in interracial couple says ‘we will rise above negativity’
“We’ve come to understand people do not want a black person dating or marrying a white person, or a white person dating or marrying a black person. And to them I say, we will rise above.”