“She dialed my mom’s number on speaker. ‘Hi, Diane. This is the nurse at your daughter’s school. Katherine has something to tell you.’ Seriously lady? I got on the phone, played dumb. ‘Oh my gosh, Katherine! What is going on?’ My parents had NO idea I was sexually active. Little did I know, there were bigger problems to worry about. ‘If he was wearing his seatbelt, he would have survived.’ A funeral was planned without me or my daughter in attendance.”
“My teeth crumbled out of my mouth because of my weakened immune system and stress. I cried day and night. People told me yoga, exercise, Paleo diets, or meditation would magically cure me. Thanks Karen, but I don’t think your snake oil is going to cure this bad boy!”
“I did everything wrong. Instead of calling 9-1-1, I drove my son to the hospital. I was one of those parents who was annoyed my son wasn’t allowed to bring peanut butter to school. I was uneducated and ignorant.”
“We were told, ‘The swelling must be from the position she slept in. It’s nothing. It will go away soon.’ Weeks went by, but nothing changed. When puberty hit, my face was growing faster than I was. I had unexplainable headaches and nosebleeds. I was sleeping all day long. Everywhere I went, I got stares, whispers, and pointing fingers.”
“She was on oxygen, and had been since arrival. ‘By the way, I told you the wrong dad. The real dad is ____.’ I went into full panic mode.”
“Over and over I said, ‘Please have a heartbeat.’ Sometimes I close the nursery door so I don’t get too attached. Just in case.”
“I was recovering from birth while walking from the parking garage to my baby multiple times a day, changing my pad in a hospital bathroom, setting alarms to pump. I mustered up the strength to sit at a hospital, postpartum, while my 1-week-old baby had his chest cut open.”
“I dropped out. ‘You won’t get very far,’ they told me. I believed it. I was determined to do was prove people wrong. You don’t need ANYBODY to make you a SOMEBODY.”
“She was moodier than usual, but she was turning 12. ‘Hormones, right?’ She started complaining about leg cramps and throwing up after running. When the coroner’s office called, we were told, ‘You missed the symptoms.’ Rachel was gone, and she was not coming back.”
“Only one mother showed up at ‘Family Day.’ It broke my heart. Our friends and family discouraged us from moving forward. All I could think about was how Alex didn’t have a choice.”
