“After a dreadful ride home, I walked into the bathroom with my mom. 16-year-old me stood there, already knowing what the outcome of the pregnancy test would be. Two lines. My mom and I started crying. I fell to my knees. ‘What am I going to do? I was supposed to graduate. I was supposed to go to college.’ My mom looked down at me, ‘You will.'”
“I cried my eyes out. They chalked it up to being more prevalent if you were young, Black, and poor. I prayed she would be born alive.”
“‘Are you going to help to find a donor?’ She said, ‘I’m sure you’ll pick a good one.’ I was crushed, but said nothing.”
“When I say her name, I don’t imagine a hospital bed and a funeral. No, I imagine her great, big smile that lit up an entire room. I imagine her laugh, her soft hands and perfect pixie nose. I imagine her holding a flower crown on her head, the wind softly blowing her hair.”
“One day, my dad handed me half of a rock. He pulled out the other half and said, ‘If you ever miss me, put the two halves together. Then it’ll be okay and we’ll be together.’ I didn’t really understand, but I took the rock.”
“To all the non-cool parents out there, I see you.”
“Today, I literally had to hold the tears in while my lips quivered under my mask.”
“I’m a mother when I need to be because I’ve set boundaries. We have an open relationship where we can talk about everything. She trusts me. Even though she’s my daughter, she’s such an inspiration.”
“We’ll be moving forward, hand in hand, for the rest of our lives. I’ve searched the world for love and she was within me the whole time.”
“Just a day out of high school, I’d become responsible for a whole new life. I was in complete control of our future… until I wasn’t. I put it on the back burner, thinking maybe he’ll ‘grow out of it.’”
