LJ Herman is a former editor at Love What Matters and lives in Colorado. LJ is a concert, ticket and technology enthusiast. He has seen the Dave Mathews Band over one hundred times and counting.
‘My doctor called pregnancies at my age ‘geriatric.’ When the f*ck did 38 become geriatric? For the first time in my life, I felt older than I was.’: Woman recounts IVF struggle, ‘Turns out with age comes resilience’
“The only reason we sought IVF after all was due to my husband having a vasectomy. Our doctor sat us down and informed us moving forward at this point would be futile. Women my age seemed to be doing just fine, thank you. I was the problem. Me. I was only 38!”
‘I was in a wheelchair for 3 months, unable to walk or make a living. We were homeless. Friends donated furniture, filled our pantry, and clothed us.’: Family stays hopeful after ‘losing everything’ in fire
“We decided to build a small barn and live in it temporarily. Two weeks from being able to move in, I took a bad ladder fall down the side of the house. What little cash we had left now had to become living expenses. But, God!”
‘My husband died on a Saturday. Monday, we planned the funeral. Thursday, I started a new job. I thought if I stayed busy, it would fix the brokenness.’: Woman urges self care for fellow widows, ‘It’s a daily battle’
“What no one prepares you for is what happens after the last sympathy card is opened and people have moved on. I stuffed away every bad feeling. I am a broken person trying to piece my life back together.”
‘He drilled my boyfriends. He put a down payment on my first car. He comes over to check my car’s oil and fix things that break.’: Woman celebrates father figure, ‘What day celebrates the Gene’s?’
“My dad left when I was a baby. Gene has been in my life as long as I can remember. He wasn’t my dad. He wasn’t even technically my step-dad. He was Gene.”
‘Today I woke up from my fight with one pandemic, and turned on the news to be reminded of another pandemic entirely.’: Mom recovering from Covid-19 says ‘America has a RACISM PANDEMIC’
“I am weary. My heart is broken. Friends, America has a RACISM PANDEMIC that is claiming the lives of our black brothers and sisters at a horrifying rate. When a black child is stolen from us, EVERY mother’s heart should bleed.”
‘Mommy, I want to go to a restaurant,’ my daughter interjected. Our favorite eateries may not make it.’: Mom of daughter with asthma says ‘one sniffle, one tiny cough sends me into a frenzy of worry’
“I wake up trembling from dreams of her in the hospital bed attached to IVs, helpless and vulnerable. A few days ago, the kids and I sat in the car and went out for a drive. We hadn’t been outside of our immediate neighborhood for over 8 weeks. Everything looked normal. I felt disappointed.”
‘My 10 and 7-year-old girls asked for belly shirts. My knee-jerk reaction was, ‘No, that’s inappropriate.’: Mom ponders balancing body positivity with modesty, ‘I worry about how they will be perceived’
“‘I don’t know, I need time to think about it.’ Allowing my daughters to run around half-naked won’t change the perversion of a depraved mind. Where do we draw the line? And so here I am, thinking out loud.”
‘We received a little boy almost 3 years old. We didn’t have enough clothes or toys, but the joy on his face was the biggest blessing in the world.’: Mom shares important lesson about foster care, ‘When people say it takes a village, it does’
“I didn’t really think about the impact us being a foster family would have on our extended family and our friends. They stepped in and helped us in so many ways, I can’t even count them.”
‘Can I use your phone? I need to call the police.’ This woman found it ‘funny’ to scare little black boys, and I am heartbroken.’: Mom of black son says ‘images of 1950’s racism are on my 2020 TV’
“The people listening to her story worked in education, and most of them found this story funny. So, instead of cutting the story off, they laughed. I am heartbroken. This is my response.”
‘I am the woman who is constantly OK, even when I’m not OK. Yesterday, I stopped pretending.’: Woman struggling with mental health during pandemic says ‘I pretend because I feel guilty’
“The morning toast burned a little too dark, and there was a small child melting down because of it. The computer timed out and the school work had to be started all over. I am the woman who has it all together. I was done pretending.”