“I was diagnosed with Lyme disease after I began college. I found unnatural amounts of hair coming out in my brush. I stood in front of the mirror in tears.”
‘It’s a good thing you’re pretty because you don’t have much else going for you.’ Those words cut deep. I allowed them to affect how I viewed my worth.
I leaned in and said, ‘Hi mom.’ She continued to stare, but not at me. I knew this was coming. She’s had dementia for 9 years. I kissed her forehead and said, ‘I love you.’ Still nothing.
“Her caregiver said, ‘Becky’s here.’ My mom looks around me and says, ‘Becky?!’ Then in my moment of joy, I realized she was looking for Becky. I was beside her, and she was looking past me in the hopes of seeing her Becky.”
‘I woke up being wheeled to the ICU in the worst pain imaginable. All I could silently mouth was ‘How’s my baby?’ I needed a doctor to believe me.’
“I was frustrated and angry. I know my body and I know that this isn’t a migraine!”
‘I was late picking them up. Upon dialing her number I realized I was halfway through an intersection of a red light. I let an ‘OH SH*T’ fly.’
“Oh, I had left a message all right.”
After he died, I was obsessed with looking at pictures of him. I thought to myself, ‘I have to get these off my phone.’ I never got the chance.
“By that evening, my phone crashed. I lost everything. Every text, every video, every sad, painful picture. They were gone. He was gone. Everything was gone.”
‘I don’t really know what to say. Would you like tea?’ I’d just found out my boy wasn’t fine, he’d never be fine, and our life was forever changed.’: Mom’s son diagnosed with rare Vanishing White Matter terminal illness
“He wasn’t able to walk or stand. He was dragging one of his legs and crisscrossing them. Friends and family kept trying to reassure me everything would be okay, but I knew it wouldn’t. I could tell by how the doctors tiptoed around us, the way they were spending so much time with us. ‘It’s progressive, untreatable, incurable, and terminal.’ Despite all this, Sam is joy personified. He is the most incredible person I’ve ever met.”
‘MY TWO QUEENS! There are many times in life where you get to watch wonderful things happen. Her dream is to become a superstar – and tonight you helped make her dream come true!’
“Without Delaney doing this Skye probably would not have even been on the ballot.”
‘I may carry the mental load, but YOU carry ME. That’s a realization I came to today.’
“Her kids are always so dirty; does she even bath them? Wow. She’s put on a few pounds. She looks like a mess; do you think she’s okay?”
‘You were told you have cancer. If I timed my letter right – you’re home now, sitting with your daughter at bedtime.’
“You took that picture, holding your baby tight, wondering if these old photos would be the only evidence of you she’d have.”
‘I discovered cocaine in my mom’s purse while we were shopping. She had it hidden in a mint case along with a razor blade and a straw. Then she married her drug dealer.’
“She stayed with him because he was always ‘sorry.’ He ‘never meant to hurt her.'”
‘Throughout my entire pregnancy, I had a ticking time bomb inside of me, and no one knew.’
“We were young and felt invincible to the world. Little did we know the storm we would cross in our path. Then my water broke…”
‘I slept next to my husband harboring the biggest secret I’ve ever kept.’: Wife surprises husband with exciting pregnancy announcement
“My heart was racing. I don’t remember the rest of the words he spoke, I just remember the look on his face. Just like our wedding day. Our little girl will forever know the joy he felt.”
‘If you tell a person with anxiety to ‘just stop,’ you might as well just stop your mouth from spitting more unhelpful garbage.’
“If you make the mistake of asking someone with anxiety why they ‘do this to themselves,’ you really have no clue.”
‘I was watching her sleep next to me and realized it didn’t look right. I unbuttoned her and this is what I saw.’: Mom warns about the 1 cold symptom you shouldn’t ignore
“It is a sign to get your baby or child to hospital.”
‘My DAD was in the delivery room when I birthed my first child. ‘It’s okay Molz, you got this!’: Daughter grateful to experience ‘remarkable moment’ with father after losing him 3 years later
“I looked up from the bed horrified my dad was actually watching this whole thing. He could have snuck out. But he chose to stay. And I chose to let him. The power of those decisions would not be fully understood until years later. My dad died when the baby girl he witnessed come into this world was just 3 and a half years old.”
As A New Stay-At-Home Mom, I Am No Longer Sure Of My Place In The World
“I often feel the need to defend my choice of quitting my teaching job to be at home with my babies.”
‘He shook her violently and put her in the tub. There were bruises on her little body. He thought she was dead.’: Woman works to pass child abuse bill after granddaughter survives shaken baby syndrome
“My son-in-law called, saying Miley was choking and had stopped breathing. I dropped the phone and drove to the house where I found him standing in the doorway, holding a lifeless baby. I noticed bruising on her chin. I knew right away her father had hurt her badly. She had a 20% chance of survival.”
‘Why God? She’s innocent. She’s only 6 months old!’ Thoughts of guilt flooded my mind. How could I possibly want to bring another child into this world so soon after losing my daughter?
“I wish I never had gone home. Around 2 a.m. we received a call from the hospital. I knew something was terribly wrong.”
‘I finally got the words out, ‘I DON’T WANT TO LIVE ANYMORE!’ I grabbed a bottle of ibuprofen, filled my hand and swallowed. I’ll never forget the look on her face.’: 4 years after suicide attempt, woman says she’s a ‘new person’
“The last message she sent to me read, ‘You don’t matter anyways, maybe you should just disappear.’”
‘We would take her in a heartbeat, we were really hoping no one would come after her.’ I surprised Bob, for his 80th birthday, with the gift of Sloan.
He mentioned if she ever needed company or a place to visit, she was welcome at their home anytime. ‘We’ll be here waiting!’ he said.
‘Trisomy 18.’ ‘Incompatible with life.’ ‘Why would anyone want a baby like that?’ I didn’t understand how the baby so full of life within me could be THAT sick.
“She was so beautiful in her ultrasounds, yet the doctors would only tell me about how ‘scary’ she would look.”
‘My son told me he didn’t want me to be his mom anymore because I was the MEANEST mom in the WHOLE world. Wow. Out of all those other moms, they chose me. Me!’
“At first I felt unprepared. At first I felt undeserving. But here I am. First of all, I want to thank my husband. This is only possible because of you and that one night. You know the one.”
‘I knew she was ready to go. She had done her job, and done it well.’ Firefighter says tearful farewell to his ‘best friend’ Dalmatian therapy dog
“In her final moments, I held my girl one last time and looked at her big brown eyes to tell her how much I loved her.”
Dear Husband: This Is Why Your Partner Doesn’t Want To Be Touched In Bed Tonight
“Because while she was thrilled to do a poo from her morning coffee, her children came in and tried to see what was in the toilet bowl and throw their toys down there.”
‘For one brief moment, all was as it should be. Suddenly, without any warning, the path crumbled beneath our feet. I was severely hemorrhaging. I was bleeding out.’
“I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes. I knew I was in trouble. I asked for my husband and heard his voice weakly manage to say, ‘I love you.’ He knew I was in trouble, too.”