“If it weren’t for my sister calling me right before, I wouldn’t be here. She had no idea I’d just written a letter saying ‘goodbye.’ No one knew I was suffering. No one asked if I was okay. I shared only the good parts of my life, never the struggles. My family thought my life was beautiful and amazing.”
‘Nicole, I had NO IDEA.’ I almost took my own life. I hid it so well. No one knew.’: Woman reminds us to ‘always be kind’ after battling suicide, ‘you never know the battles someone is facing’
‘I’m sorry buddy,’ I heard him whisper. He laid him down. Just like that, Ren was gone.’: Couple’s emotional final moments with newborn son, ‘We feel your peace, you’ll always be our baby boy’
“We got a knock on the door. ‘I’m sorry for your loss, I’m here to take Ren.’ I couldn’t get myself to physically lay Ren in the box. I turned to my husband and asked if he was okay to do it. I saw his heart rip in two. Tears streamed down his face. We tried to take in every detail, remember his newborn smell. We gently took off the cap they gave him. He had tiny little blonde curls.”
‘I’ll shoot you up for the first time,’ the man I was sleeping with offered. I agreed. I lived a double life.’: 25-year-old overcomes prostitution to feed addiction, now manages sober living home for women
“She was a stripper, and she introduced me to the lifestyle. I was infatuated by it. Fast money, flashy life, and drugs galore. It wasn’t long before I started working as a dancer in the strip club, and my life took an even darker turn. I was in the bathroom doing lines of cocaine. She pulled out another bag of drugs that looked different. ‘It’s heroin. Do you want to try it?’ Biggest mistake of my life.”
‘Are you KIDDING? Don’t be a prude. Just take the drink!’ I shook my head no. I was weak. I took it.’: Woman loses father to alcohol poisoning, ‘it is my right not to drink, please respect it’
“At 11, they draped a pale, unfamiliar version of my dad in white. ‘Are you alone?’ I watched a flurry of red and blue police lights dance across my ceiling. Alcohol poisoning. He never returned. You knew my past. Yet, you judged me when I turned down your drink. Did you know, I saw my father in my nightmares that night? Did you know, I was smiling, but dying on the inside? My trauma is more important than your right to a fun time.”
‘What do we do with the remaining embryos?’ We signed away the parental rights. I was in for one more shock: TWINS!’: Couple donates extra embryos to family battling infertility, ‘They were put in our path for a reason!’
“We decided we were done having children, but still had 6 embryos frozen. I created a Facebook profile in hopes of finding a deserving family. I didn’t expect much. Within hours, we had EIGHT families interested. Kate and Seth were put in our path for a reason.”
‘I gave birth to this gorgeous, healthy baby a year after her father’s death.’: Widow gets pregnant with late husband’s baby from saved embryos, ‘now, after his death, it seemed possible’
“‘Sir, you have kidney cancer.’ My husband was 32. It was shocking. Before cancer was our biggest obstacle, infertility was. We chose to freeze his sperm – a decision that would change our lives forever. Two embryos were left over. Our hospital didn’t believe in destroying them, so I had to decide what that meant for me. Before he died, Joel told me, ‘You and I are going to have another baby. It will be a girl, you know what to name her.’”
‘Rebecca’s at the hospital in labor!’ Please don’t think it’s okay to announce my baby before I do.’: Mom urges us to ‘respect boundaries,’ refrain from ‘breaking baby announcement protocol’
“We live in a world of instant gratification, where the second something happens, good or bad, the world needs to know. But parents should be the first to share the big news!”
‘I was left to wonder if I’d ever truly be an empty nester. He may never marry or have children.’: Mom forced to rethink future after child diagnosed with severe autism
“When my husband and I were told our child had a lifelong and severe medical condition, things changed. I feel no bitterness, no resentment, no envy for others who don’t have to consider these things. I do, however, feel sadness.”
‘Your child has bite marks,’ the injury report read. She was bitten 5 times, then pushed down the stairs.’: Mom offers empathy to ‘biting child’ parents, ‘nobody in their right mind is judging you’
“You’re probably thinking I went crazy in the daycare office, demanding to know who was biting my daughter. That I threatened to remove her from their care. I did none of those things. ‘How would you feel if your kid was the biter?’ my mom asked. The answer is: terrible. I’m sure the mother of this child thinks I hate her. I absolutely do not. But please try. The school cannot ‘fix’ your child.”
‘In a quiet voice, holding back tears, they asked if they could have ‘their’ dance. YES! You will have your dance!’: Daughters share emotional wedding dance with dying father before it’s too late
“Jason has always been the most attentive father. He’s never missed any of their events. We have raised two daddy’s girls and I was about to break their hearts. Their future suddenly looked very different. The dreams they had of their daddy walking them down the aisle had come to a screeching halt.”
‘Daddy is going to take me from mommy and I will never see her again.’ My memories are dark.’: After years of childhood bullying, woman finally breaks free from trauma, ‘I am free’
“My family would say I was ‘crying wolf, I was fine.’ ‘I wasn’t depressed. To stop faking it.’ I was spiraling. Money was tight for my dad, so we had to stay in the same room. I lived a lie. I woke up, went to school, put on a smile. Then I then came home and fell into darkness. My dad finally made me start paying rent to live with him. I put my key in my apartment door and just sighed with relief. I was free. Free to breathe. No mental abuse. I was free.”
‘I’ve spent life forcing myself to not lose my memories of my mom. I wish I had more photos of her.’: Woman urges parents to take more pictures after losing mom to Ovarian Cancer, ‘one day it is all they will have left’
“If I were to die today, my son would have a collection of photos of me with Instagram filters. Get in front of the camera. Even if you’re on day 3 of dry shampoo and you don’t love the way your body looks. If you were to die today, your child wouldn’t care about any of that. They just want to see YOU, not the overly-filtered woman you post on social media. They want to see you the way they knew you.”
‘Mom, just listen to me for a second.’ We don’t always agree. But you’ll always be my little boy.’: Mom reminisces on son’s younger years, ‘I had no idea how proud or in love I would be’
“You’ve become gifted in the art of rolling your eyes when you disagree. I’m not always good at listening; I know that. But no matter what, you’re still my little boy. Even though your hands are bigger than mine, you’re still my little boy. I had no idea the incredible young man you’d become.”
‘A notification from my husband. How? He’d been dead for 3 years. There’s no way.’: Woman receives spooky signs from late husband letting her know he’s still around, ‘Like a ghost’
“It stopped me in my tracks. There was no way. I clicked out to see if it was an error, but it was still there. I blinked my eyes furiously to make sure I was seeing it right, and I was. I held my hand to my mouth and covered it. He is dead. How can it be possible a dead man could be tagging me in a post? My eyes began to burn from trying not to cry. I could not believe what I was seeing.”
Despite Criticism, I Will Still Co-Sleep With My Toddler
“And each night, as I leave your room, I will kiss you goodnight and remind myself just how lucky I am.”
‘We never should have walked away from that night, but we did. I called my mom in tears. She booked me the next flight home.’: Capitol Hill massacre survivor recalls narrowly missing notorious mass shooting, ‘We woke up to see our friends faces on the news’
“Kyle Aaron Huff was at the rave. This was the same after party that Luke and I would have been at. All I wanted was to stay with Luke, but I knew I needed my mom more. He took me to the airport, we said our goodbyes, and I left. I looked back and saw him looking back at me, and I almost stopped. But I knew I had to keep going. In a span of 2 years, I lost the man I thought I’d marry, and the man who was perfect for me.”
‘Fine, I’ll tell you. I was with your best friend. We ended up having sex.’ She smirked, shrugged her shoulders.’: Woman files restraining order against stalker ex-boyfriend, ‘I knew what needed to be done, I was finally ready’
“‘He will not change, at least not right now,’ my friend told me. As I wrote a breakup message, my heart dropped, scared of his reaction. He was absolutely livid. When he was finally fed up with me not answering his calls, he messaged me. ‘We had sex.’ I thought he was joking. I handed the phone to my best friend whom he was referring to. She smirked and shrugged her shoulders. ‘Yeah I did it, I messed up.’”
‘Are you gay?’ ‘No,’ he said immediately. I looked at his wounded face. It turns out, I was right.’: Husband comes out as gay, couple divorces but continues to live together happily co-parenting
“We decided we loved each other enough to let our marriage go. We’d no longer be spouses, but we’d always be a family. We ended our marriage with a divorce ceremony sharing vows to our 4 daughters, promising to always be a family, even if Mommy and Daddy aren’t married. Josh has found the love of his life, Carlos, who has become a cherished member of our family. Talk about miracles…my family is a fan of my gay ex-husband’s boyfriend!”
‘I lifted her shirt. ‘Mommy, I’ve been scared to say this, but I have a big bump on my chest.’: 8-year-old girl diagnosed with breast cancer after both parents beat cancer, ‘We are a family of fighters’
“There it was. A hard lump directly under her right nipple. ‘Honey? Please come here a minute.’ My husband and I exchanged a look of fear. It was so dark you could see it through her skin. We just hugged and bawled. ‘Not our baby girl,’ we both kept saying. ‘Mommy, what’s wrong?’ Her sweet face changed.”
‘How’s he sleeping?’ Well I’ll tell ya, if you couldn’t already tell by the giant black bags under my eyes, baby isn’t sleeping well.’: Mom’s candid reply to all those who feel the need to comment on children’s sleep training
“Have you ever been stuck at the grocery store talking to a Nancy because she asked about your 9 month old, and you told her he still wasn’t sleeping well, hence the reason you had so much coffee in your cart? You’re met with a horrified expression, ‘Your 9 month old, still isn’t sleeping?!’ GUYS. We have got to stop.”
‘She looked at me. ‘I don’t have good news.’ All I could manage was, ‘I know.’: Woman devastated after losing baby to partial molar pregnancy, only to learn pregnancy could cause cancer later
“I couldn’t look at my husband when he got home. I couldn’t look at him for days. I was so ashamed of myself, and I was terrified he would blame me for what happened to our sweet Paxton. I hid in our bedroom. One of my best friends came over unexpectedly, brought dinner, crawled in bed with me, and let me cry to her. She didn’t say much. She didn’t have to. I was angry at her for showing up, but I am so thankful that she did. My heart needed her presence.”
‘I invited my husband’s ex-wife to my wedding. In our family, we’re not ‘half’ or ‘step.’ We’re just family.’: Mom and stepmom come together to peacefully co-parent after feud, ‘Women should always support each other’
“As I was falling in love with him and his daughter, he and his wife were getting a divorce. We were both young, immature, and jealous. I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. Hurtful words were thrown around for years. One day, we decided to meet up and talk. ‘Can you meet me at the coffee shop?’ That was the day two women came together in vulnerability.”
‘He was so nervous. From the darkness of the hallway comes a little curly haired boy, weary of all these people.’: Couple adopts twin survivors of shaken baby syndrome, loses son just 2 years shy of being in his ‘forever home’
“We heard about twin boys with Shaken Baby Syndrome. It was a super stormy morning, we ended up having to pull off the interstate. I was dying to get to them. Everyone held back tears as long as we could. Malakai was scared. He had no idea who we were. He’d hardly look at my husband. He passed away less than 6 hours after saying goodbye to his siblings. I still would have driven to a teeny tiny town in the pouring rain to pick he and his twin up to bring them to their forever home.”
‘I still love breastfeeding. The bond, those quiet moments. We aren’t scared ‘to cut the cord.’: Mom still breastfeeds toddler, says ‘We are doing it for our child’s health’
“Tell me again how breastfeeding my toddler is just for myself? Doing loads of laundry with a child hanging off my breast is just for me, right? Breastfeeding a child swinging monkey-like while your nipple is in their mouth is what us self-absorbed mothers are constantly longing for! No one is breastfeeding their toddler for themselves. It is for their child alone.”
‘You don’t cook enough. Your husband would be better off without you.’ I’m suicidal, but I don’t want to die.’: Woman battling suicide urges us to ‘speak out’ during mental turmoil, ‘it will save your life’
“I am an outgoing and relatively happy woman, but my hormones were out of whack. I was sleep deprived. ‘You talk too much. You slacked on the laundry and now look at this pile! Your car is disgusting. Your friends are tired of your complaining.’ Something inside said, ‘Tell your husband.’ I was scared. If I lost my battle with my mind, he would never forgive himself.”