“No one came to see me at the hospital. It took my ‘friends’ a year and half to even notice I was gone. Until one day I was caught at the school by the gym teacher in the girl’s bathroom. ‘You should’ve just killed yourself a faster way and got it over with.’ Soon after, I met a man.”
“‘Can my day just be done?,’ I heard her say. She then said a word that took me by surprise, and scared me: ‘Abort.’”
“My baby girl’s leg had swelled, had a red line running down her calf and was warm to the touch. Her fever rose to 103. Everything started going downhill. It can be contracted by a scrape, wound, new tattoo, or even a bruised area of skin. It is CRITICAL to be aware of the signs.”
“I headed to the hospital. I remember being in the room, feeling blood dripping from my body. I watched my friend’s body bleed simultaneously, signs of life, as she waited to bring her baby into the world. A life leaving and a life beginning all in the same room at the same moment. I was transfixed.”
“We had a 6-month-old baby and added an emotional 5-year-old to the mix. There were days where I felt like I was babysitting someone else’s kids. People told me I wouldn’t be able to love these children as my own. You come in expecting everything to fall into place. It doesn’t work like that. I had no idea what I was doing.”
“As I stared at the letter, my hand started shaking. I found myself holding my breath, paralyzed by the shock of the unexpected. Seeing her name in writing after so many years caught me off guard.”
“We worry what others think. Why we didn’t get the invite. We over-analyze texts. We see glances, hear whispers, and assume they’re directed at us. People aren’t always going to agree with you. In fact, some people aren’t going to like you for no other reason than because they can.”
“I knew some would think I slept around, that I was promiscuous. I knew that girls would talk. I knew there was a pill that could ‘take it all away.’ But I knew that was a lie anyway.”
“‘I’m sorry, we have to do this when a child dies in the home. It’s so hard for you,’ the investigator said. They found no cause of death. It is so rare, and the last thing I want to do is cause fear in someone else, but it’s a very real and possible thing that can happen.”
“You’ll think about the sound of her voice and the way her hugs felt. You’ll think about the ways she cared about every little detail of your day. You’ll think of her until one day, you realize thinking of her no longer hurts.”
