“To the nurse who woke up to a text message that another one of their coworkers has died. Every day, we write our names and the date on our face masks and eye shields. Every day, we show up stronger, more capable, and braver than the day before. Not just for our patients, but for one another.”
‘To the nurse who tested positive for COVID-19. To the nurse who can no longer breathe. My name is Aída. I am an ER nurse. I feel you. I share your pain.’: Nurse says ‘I WILL show up for YOU’
‘I have this intense feeling we needed to go to the shelter today.’ Ruby has done more than be my best friend. She saved my life.’: Woman praises rescue dog, ‘They’re miracles from God’
“Within 2 weeks, she passed away in my arms. Even though I know my sweet Peanut girl got her wings that day, I was completely devastated. There are some pain days I want to kiss this little slice of earth behind, but I just can’t.”
‘Someone commented, ‘I didn’t know her, but this girl captivated me!’ I can’t help but miss her more. I’m her mom. I know how awesome she is.’: After losing daughter to flu mom says ‘8 years wasn’t nearly long enough’
“I would post our family pictures online as a record of our wonderful life. I can’t help but think she was only with us on borrowed time. If I’d known this, I would have had her sooner so I could have loved her and experienced Kinsley longer. 8 years wasn’t nearly long enough.”
‘Dear big kids, having this unexpected time with you is a gift. But I wish you didn’t have to be here.’: Mom says ‘life threw us a curve ball, but watching you play on is one of the honors of my life’
“A much as I love having you on my couch and at my table—I don’t love how hard it is for you to be those places when you expected to be somewhere else right now.”
‘They just want to make it home to their loved ones. They’re working soul-crushing shifts. Who will help THEM?: Woman pens ode to Covid-19 war heroes, ‘We see you, and we salute you’
“They run towards the danger, as everyone else runs the other way. They’ve made choices that will follow them for the rest of their lives. They’ve been the last face many have seen as they drew their last breath, those images seared in their minds for all time.”
‘I’ve seen too many of my peers crying in the aisles lately. Sometimes I ugly cry outside. But never inside. I know I’m not alone.’: Grocery store worker fears taking Covid-19 home to family, ‘What if I today is the day?’
“I work for my town’s local grocery store. I have 3 children confined at home. Daily, I see fear on the faces down every aisle. I see huge, barren holes on shelves from panic. It never seems like enough. I know I’m not alone.”
‘I cried, ‘Make it stop! I can’t take it any longer!’ I downed laxatives to ’empty out’ whatever I’d let inside my body.’: Woman battling anorexia survives laxative suicide attempt, ‘EVERY one of us need to reach the end, even if we can’t always see that’
“I went downstairs to get the laundry and crumpled down on the bottom step. That’s when I felt the shooting pain of the latest round of laxatives attempting to kick in. I dropped the basket and crawled on my hands and knees. I could feel my stomach contracting fiercely. I didn’t even have the strength to hold a phone to my ear.”
‘My son looked at me and said, ‘Mom, I’m tired of this.’ The first 2 weeks we had so much fun. Any structure we had is now gone.’: Mom says ‘the sooner we come to terms with this, the better’
“Tomorrow is my son’s birthday. I slacked too long and the gifts I ordered won’t arrive in time. I reassure myself by saying, ‘He’s only 4, he won’t be disappointed.’ But in my heart, I’m fuming. Who am I? Just 2 months ago I planned a birthday party extraordinaire for my oldest. This just isn’t like me. Any sort of structure we had is now gone.”
‘We think you had a heart attack.’ I knew what was coming, the URGENT TRANSPLANT LIST.’: At 28, woman suffers heart failure and sepsis, ‘It’s HER heart that keeps me alive’
“My heart was failing. I couldn’t even get out of bed. I threw up instantly and then fainted. ‘I can’t be sick forever. I can’t live like this.’ The coordinator came in to tell me there may be a heart for me — her heart. I wasn’t scared. I was ready.”
‘I woke up gasping for air. The ER doctor told me, ‘I’m sure you have it.’ The nurses were scared. Mack pulled away and I wanted to cry.’: Woman struggles to get tested for Covid-19 says ‘please know this is real, people are dying’
“I’d just been diagnosed with the flu on March 5th and started to feel better until this hit. I was cleaning the restroom when Dante came in and said, ‘Mom, what are you doing? Get out of the bathroom! You are putting on too much bleach!!! You are going to stop breathing!’”
‘Today I sat in my therapist chair and listened to a middle school student sob over FaceTime because she can’t return to school.’: Therapist shares mental health tips to survive quarantine
“If you need help during this time, please call a therapist. You are not bothering us! We want to help you! We have never in our lifetime dealt with the loss of our lives as we have at this moment.”
‘I was at a table alone when I heard an old professor call my name. ‘How’s work?’ I could feel the heaviness in her question.’: Mom says when it comes to success ‘you become what you think about’
“It was the 10-year mark of my job and I began to grow restless. I was at the top and there was no position above me to reach. I started thinking of myself as something or someone else. I was tired of holding things up. I wanted what I wanted. I had to be honest.”
‘You need to isolate immediately.’ The chances of survival for me are extremely low.’ : Woman with asthma, stage 4 endometriosis says, ‘I’ve been fighting my whole life, I don’t plan on stopping now’
“A doctor said, ‘Everyone is going to get this virus before it ends,’ and it terrifies me. I take medication on a daily basis just to breathe normally. My body is weak. I have so much left in life I want to see and do. I’ve been fighting my whole life, and I don’t plan on stopping now.”
‘Today my brother got married in the driveway of his home where a tornado ripped through in the middle of the night one year before.’: Woman says ‘love conquers through the darkness’
“Months ago, a tornado ripped through their home in the middle of one terrifing night. And there they stood. In front of that torn down, knocked apart, and REBUILT beautiful house. Today, I didn’t get to be there as a bridesmaid. My parents didn’t get to be there. They stood tall and fearless, saying their vows and promising forever.”
‘Today I ran out of toilet paper. The dreaded day finally happened. I wobbled in, cheeks clenched, to find a barren brown tube.’: Mom shares hilarious story after running out of toilet paper, ‘Let’s find humor in the chaos’
“I scream for my husband, ‘DAVE. HELP!!! THERE’S NO MORE TOILET PAPER.’ He shoves in a random t-shirt from my drawer and a plastic trash bag. So, there I was. Going liquid. No TP. No time to prepare.”
‘Your kid wants to sit on your lap while you teach long division? Great. Need to stress eat half a bag of Cheetos in pajamas while trying to explain Experimental Error? Go for it.’: Mom says to teachers ‘we’re on your team’
“In light of this, our family is giving you blanket permission to do this however the hell you want for the next two months. I don’t care if you teach my kids one more thing this semester.”
Easter Is Not About Eggs, Bunnies, Or Even A Packed Church
“May it change the way we look at Easter, forever.”
‘Virtual happy hours, Facetime, Google Duo… There were always so many ways to take 5 minutes out of our day to show someone we love them, and we care.’: Woman says ‘this is a global reminder to speak with love at its fullest’
“Let’s rewind to a few months ago. When we were able to go to the store, but didn’t remove our AirPods. When we forgot to call our family members. When we ordered coffee, but never looked up from our phones to say hi. Now, a virtual conversation on the couch means more than any loud dinner at the latest trendy restaurant where we’d all check our phones anyway.”
‘Your grandma has spiked a fever.’ ‘The nursing home was hit with COVID-19. My fierce, stubborn 98-year-old Italian little woman of a Nana fell victim.’: Woman mourns grandma lost to Covid-19, ‘Today Nana left us and my heart is broken’
“Telling my Nana my life wasn’t going to be what she expected, as I’d met the person I intended to marry and it was not a ‘he,’ was the most difficult moment of my life. I watched her heart break in front of me, fully aware I was the cause. Years later, at my wedding, she looked at me and said, ‘The LGBTQ community is the happiest group of people I’ve ever been part of.’ Today, Nana left us. My heart is broken.”
‘My OB came back in with a flu swab. I couldn’t hold our beautiful, new daughter. Tears immediately filled my eyes.’: Mom recalls childbirth as Influenza patient pre-pandemic, ‘Hindsight is 20/20’
“10 minutes after childbirth, I began shaking. My temperature skyrocketed. It was recommended we remove our precious, new baby from my care, and into theirs. I handed her over. We weren’t allowed visitors. My husband could only visit me with protective gear. But hindsight is 20/20.”
‘It started with what I thought were seasonal allergies. 2 days later, the chest pain began.’: 35-year-old mom positive with COVID-19 after ‘following all the rules’
“I woke up completely drenched in sweat. I called the COVID-19 hotline. 5 minutes later, a very condescending man came on. I was told I sounded ‘fine’ and was likely just ‘exaggerating’ the symptoms due to anxiety. I had a seizure. Blood had started pouring out of my mouth. I wouldn’t realize just how much until later.”
‘I wanted it. It was my fault.’ I didn’t report the crime because no one would believe a schizophrenic.’: Woman with schizophrenia overcomes abuse, finds soulmate, ‘Everyone deserves love and beauty in their lives’
“It started with neglect and evolved into mental, emotional, and physical abuse. I endured this silently, for I thought it was what I was destined for. All the while, I was hearing voices and believing I was seeing dead people. My husband went along with my delusions. I truly thought I was a vampire and he encouraged it.”
‘I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to put you on birth control.’ The IVF clinic shut down. All I ever wanted was to be pregnant.’: Woman battles infertility during pandemic after IVF clinic closes, ‘I still have hope’
“My body left me with 3 cysts. ‘It’s not fair,’ I cried to my husband. It’s been a year since we lost our miracle baby, and now our rainbow baby has been pushed further and further away. I am unsure of when my next treatment will be. Through tears of uncertainty, I decided to stop my birth control. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.”
‘They found a lump. I’m sure it’s nothing.’ It wasn’t ‘nothing.’ It was the beginning of the end.’: Covid nurse honors mother after she passes from breast cancer, ‘I became a nurse because of my mama’
“I became a nurse because of my mama. ‘We’re staying home for people like Nana because these germs would make her very, very sick.’ I played a tiny role in some of the very best and very worst days of people’s lives, while I quietly and achingly watched my own mama fight and fight.”
‘I told her I was feeling really low and just didn’t have the energy to even go to the store. The depression of being inside set in.’: Woman says friendships are about people who say ‘I’m here for you’ and prove it
“A short time later, she came to my house with a shopping bag. From 6 feet away, she placed a bag of groceries and masks on the ground. I was an emotional wreck.”