“The news was showing tons of people who were stuck in different countries because of the border closing. ‘Will I be stuck in Mexico? I’m a United States citizen, they can’t tell me no, right?’ I was so nervous! I didn’t want it to be me.”
‘I called my mom hysterically crying, ‘I don’t want to cross the border alone. It’s too dangerous!’ Everyone was silent.’: Young woman takes risk leaving US during pandemic, ‘I’ve never wanted to be home so badly’
‘This is my ex-husband’s new wife Tiffaney showing up and showing out. This isn’t JUST another picture of a stethoscope and a coffee cup.’: Nurse mom praises co-parent during quarantine
“Today, when she dropped off the boys, she brought coffee. I worked 72 hours last week, and will work 72 the next. Both ICU ‘s where I’m a nurse are busy preparing for unknowns. This is a picture of all of the good things I wanted from my divorce. By choosing their daddy, she also chooses them.”
‘They’re stuck with their abuser 24/7, nowhere else to go. For them, it’s life or death.’: Single foster, adoptive dad says ‘remember the kids in a worse place than they were before’
“If they were being abused, they’d get to leave for school. Now, they have nowhere else to go. The chances of anyone rescuing them is almost impossible. For many of us, our biggest problem right now is toilet paper. For them, it’s life or death.”
‘If I’m forced to self-isolate a majority of the time, you can for a few months!’: Young woman with chronic illness begs for social distancing, ‘Maybe we will become better humans when it’s over’
“To those saying, ‘it’s just a virus,’ you may be able to fight it off with no issues if you were to contract it. But guess what? It’s not just about you! It’s about everyone.”
‘Right now, while my husband, kids, and I are distancing, I picture Granny standing there. I can’t wait to capture another precious moment.’: Woman says ‘we must keep these two generations safe’
“I long to sit down with her at that table again. My heart aches when I think of all the visits, we took for granted. But it almost bursts with joy when I think of all we’ll do together in that kitchen when life looks like it used to.”
‘With all due respect to our veterans, we are doing a lot more than ‘just sitting on the couch and watching TV’ right now.’: Woman says ‘we are not in war, but we are surely fighting’
“Health care workers are risking their lives to save others. Businesses are shutting down. Grandparents are being asked to only see their grandchildren through windows and screens. Moms of littles must dig deep to find new levels of patience and creativity. We are not being sent to war, but we—all of us—are surely being asked to fight.”
‘I hung up my hat as a stay-at-home mom and outsourced my children’s needs to people more capable than myself.’: Mom to children with autism says ‘hope is equally as contagious as a virus’
“Both of my children have autism. Now here we are in self-isolation. I don’t know when our children will return to school. I am, frightened—and if I’m being completely honest—angry. We lost our village.”
‘You’re going to be staying with your dad longer than normal.’ I haven’t seen my kids in a week. I tilt my camera to the ceiling so they can’t see me cry as we say goodbye.’: Pediatric nurse practitioner urges ‘we all need to make sacrifices’
“My youngest immediately started crying and said, ‘I don’t want you to die.’ Every day I am in the hospital. My kids can only FaceTime me. I tilt my camera to the ceiling so they can’t see me cry as we say goodbye.”
‘I was 18 and so woven into the mind games I thought was ‘love.’ I couldn’t let go, no matter what I was put through.’: Woman emphasizes importance of self-love after abuse, ‘Learn to give yourself space to grow’
“I entered into the real world of adulthood without the slightest clue of what a healthy relationship looked or felt like. I was searching for that love I could create a life and family with, to make up for the experience I never had as a child. The first bite, that first taste. I all but derailed my entire life in my naivety.”
‘It’s probably just fluid in his ears.’ He had a huge patch of white hair and wasn’t reacting to sounds. ‘I hear Mila Kunis has it too.’: Woman gives birth to son with Waardenburg syndrome, ‘All I see is my perfect baby’
“Over the course of 9 months, it never once occurred to us there could be something wrong. The day before we left the hospital, a nurse casually mentioned, ‘Cooper hasn’t passed his mandatory newborn screening.’ I did a little research. By the time we got the diagnosis, I already knew.”
‘Due to COVID-19, visitors are no longer permitted.’ She was welcoming my mother’s first grandchild, and she was not there to meet him. It broke her heart.’: Woman assures ‘beautiful things are still happening every day’
“My nephew was born 48 hours ago at 34 weeks. After Liam was born, they were able to hold him briefly, until he had to be taken to the NICU due to difficulty breathing. Today was the first time that she was able to have her baby on her, skin to skin. My sister is far from alone in this.”
‘His lips formed the words, ‘No matter what, I want to marry you.’ This was happening. I didn’t want to wait for my forever with Alex.’: Couple ‘start their forever’ with social distance wedding
“We had plans of something great and big to be shared with everyone we loved. I never thought about what would happen to my wedding if a global pandemic struck. Honestly, nobody did. ‘What are you going to do?!’ His grandfather swung open the doors. The flow of love as our would-be guests blared car horns and waved signs broke me into tears immediately.”
‘WE’RE ALL INFECTED. If this or any virus doesn’t kill us, our busy and ingratitude will.’: Woman says the coronavirus has ‘forced us to re-evaluate our lives’
“I have been praying more for others. I have been more understanding of my spouse. It’s not a silver lining because I refuse to call it that. The coronavirus SUCKS.”
‘Both our kids suddenly had a very high temperature. Then the dry cough started and in that second, I knew what we were dealing with.’: Siblings test positive for coronavirus, ‘Please don’t take this lightly’
“We are a fit and healthy family. We eat well. We exercise. The fevers didn’t come down even after meds. Then the dry cough started. I kept hearing, ‘Kids don’t get sick.’ The doctor came out in full protective gear and said, ‘They’re positive.’ Our kids had been symptom free and up to the minute they got so unwell.”
The Harsh Reality Of Being A Pandemic ER Nurse
“Tonight is the last night that I’ll hug my kids goodnight or kiss my husband until god knows when.”
‘Dr. Cocky boldly said, ‘Give me 6 months and I’ll make you pregnant.’ Every negative broke me a little more.’: Woman beats infertility twice, ‘I am so proud to no longer be a statistic’
“My husband asked me when I had my last period. ‘I don’t know, what does it matter?’ I hated that question. ‘I’ll take another test, but you already know the answer.’ I was angry, I had taken so many and every negative broke me a little more, didn’t he see that?”
‘I breastfeed in front of my teens. May ALL teens see breasts whipped out in public and have the mystery of titties ruined for them.’: Former teacher mom calls for normalizing breastfeeding, ‘They can handle it’
“My teens have seen my breasts in their full, uncovered glory. Just like they see hands wiping noses, lips giving kisses to little injuries, and arms embracing small ones. They get it. They can understand. They can handle it.”
‘We have to cancel the wedding.’ In the midst of all the chaos, we thought, ‘What better place to start a marriage than inside our home?!’: Couple elope in living room after pandemic ruins wedding plans, ‘We wouldn’t have it any other way’
“Our RSVP count was 250 people. We looked forward to having everyone we love in one room. Due to the pandemic, we had to make the difficult decision to cancel. We were heartbroken. ‘Wait. We can postpone the wedding, but why postpone our marriage?’ This wasn’t what we planned, but now we wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
‘A month after my father’s death, I decided to give my 2 weeks notice. I need to sort myself out and return to my roots.’: Young woman reconnects to her heritage with DNA test and a refugee
“He died, suddenly. Unfortunately, after his death, his side of my family turned very sour. We lost communication. The only thing I had in terms of clues of where I was from, was the $89 DNA saliva test I took just four months before, and a memoir my Greek Grandfather, Papou, wrote before he died.”
‘They were dropped off sick with pneumonia. The oldest had underwear that had been worn for so long, it had fecal matter stains.’: Stepmom stands her ground against abusive ex-wife, ‘It breaks my heart’
“You want to talk crazy? She requested the judge order him to refer to her as his ‘wife’ and sleep in the same bed as her. It felt like I was in the twilight zone. She even refused to work or support her children financially. She didn’t let him see his children for over a year. It eventually tore my husband and me apart.”
‘The bus was the highlight of her day. She would confidently climb the stairs and hop into her seat.’: Couple buys real school bus for Autistic daughter, ‘The look on her face was worth all the struggles’
“We finally arrived at the location. We all got out and began talking over everything and went to get on the bus to get a thorough look at it. Braylee didn’t miss a beat. She hopped right into the bus, fastened herself right into the harness, and began singing loud and proudly, ‘Wheels on the Bus.’”
‘I went to the hospital in labor. All the doors were locked. When we entered the recovery room, things started to get weird.’: Mom grateful son’s birth timing was ‘untainted by the coronavirus’
“I assumed it was another bi-yearly media drama. I began to get nervous. We escaped with a ‘normal’ birth experience by the skin of our teeth. I held my breath on the way out.”
‘Why are you guys smiling? Don’t you take this seriously?’ We have no ‘normal’ at work. Every protocol we know is thrown out the window.’: Nurse urges ‘hug your healthcare providers, when hugging is safe!’
“We look around at our coworkers and wonder, ‘Who will get it?’, ‘How bad will it be?’, ‘How many patients will we lose?’ We don’t know what else to do but smile. We are trying our best to embrace this new reality-to keep our cool. Underneath, we are scared to death. We are scared, of death.”
‘Should we take our kids to China with us, or drop them in the US?’ The mood on the plane was somber.’: Expats make it back to China to begin quarantine, ‘We’ve been forced to realize just how lucky we are’
“We had fears and doubts in the back of our minds about what would be best for our family. It was in Dubai we discovered there were a few families in our gated community who had been infected, and to add salt to the wound, we discovered my daughter and I had picked up lice. The situation was almost comical at that point.”
‘To be fully honest, if I didn’t stay busy, I’d eat all of the quarantine snacks while standing in my kitchen staring at my phone.’: Quarantined mom urges ‘take it all one day at a time’
“Within a quick 24-hours, I became a full-time-working-stay-at-home-full-time-home-schooling-mom. I had no idea how it was all going to happen. Hell, I’d be happy with a general idea or suggestion of how this all will play out! I know we will figure it out, but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s going to be a lot of building the plane while we fly it. And I have to be okay with that.”