“Friends and family dropped off like dead flies. That’s when I decided I would become the jail wife who helps these inmates, not the cop-bashers wife who should hide with shame. We all make mistakes, these men or women were just caught.”
‘I became a jail wife overnight. I was judged and ridiculed for standing by a man who made a mistake.’: ‘Jail wife’ starts community to write letters to inmates, ‘I believe in second chances’
‘We smiled and said, ‘I needed this today.’ White cop and black man, we were both hurting. We walked around for an hour, just listening to each other.’: Police officer urges ‘we must build change together’
“I told him I wished I was the cop who encountered Floyd, because he’d still be alive today. I told him there are good police officers out there. But most of all, I told him none of that matters, because I was there to listen. Calvin texted me a few hours later: ‘I believe things happen for a reason. We should see each other again.’ I believe him. Today, I listened. And today, I gained an ally and a friend.”
‘I was on the phone, ‘Mom, his symptoms really concern me,’ He protested a bit. ‘Let me sleep on it.’ I held my dad’s hand while he died.’: Woman loses father to Covid-19, ‘I’ll never forget the nurses and doctors’
“’Cheryl? Your dad is not going to make it through the night.’ The Nurse Practitioner on the other end was out of breath. ‘How do I get my mom there?’ She didn’t know. I held my dad’s hand while he died.”
‘He said she got in her vehicle and got on her phone and pulled off to an area near the gas station. Within minutes, police cars pulled in and surrounded him.’: Woman recounts husband’s experience with racism
“My husband wanted to do me a favor one night when he got home late from work. While there, an older white woman was at a pump across from him and he noticed she appeared very nervous and stared at him. He was told he fit a description. They asked whose car he was driving. He was told he could not leave. He was told the description was simply a black man. He came home a changed man.”
‘We decided it would be fun to re-introduce Lizzie and Sam. Their enormous smiles are a direct result of Angie’s single act of kindness from 15 years earlier’: Mom of autistic daughter says, ‘we never know when kindness will come back’
“Angie confided, ‘Why don’t you take our appointment? I will call the doctor and set it up.’ The kindness Angie showed me when I was feeling such deep desperation has always stayed with me. They both shared a positive outlook on life which is contagious. Lizzie and Sam hadn’t seen each other in over a decade!”
‘I was starting to struggle. I was afraid to drive, fighting to stay awake at the wheel. Something had to give.’: Sleep-deprived mom switches to night weans, ‘I was happy to breastfeed again’
“My whole family was paying the price. I began to struggle more with anger, anxiety, and depression. I had to get more sleep. I was happy to breastfeed again.”
‘He is dead.’ There was blood on the rug and table. This was the place he died, where he took his last breath. It was unreal.’: Woman mourns death of brother, ‘My life will never be the same’
“‘I sat in my room, talking to him and waiting for my husband, a start of what was sure to be another boring day of quarantine thanks to COVID-19. ‘I saw something on the news about a shooting.’ He was certain it was my brother. I picked up my phone to discover a 3-minute voicemail from my dad of nothing but screaming and chaos.”
‘On the days the world feels a little too scary and a little less safe, I will always be there to wipe away the tears.’: Mom comforts daughter though ‘scary times’
“As your mom, I wanted to tell you that everything would be okay. That the world as you knew it would return to normal soon. But the truth is, it probably won’t. I held you as the first teardrop formed in the corner of your eyes. And, in a blink, the flood gates were unleashed.”
‘She didn’t sign any papers. Maybe I wasn’t given up. Perhaps, I was taken, or she was told I died.’: Adoptee searches for biological mother, answers to her past
“We were nationally unwanted children. It is not always the romantic picture of children being ‘saved.’ My only connection to my past is my genes.”
‘The ultrasound tech got quiet. He dug into my stomach. ‘We can’t find her limb. Termination is always an option.’: Special needs mom says daughter has ‘changed my life for the better’
“We were newlyweds. I took a pregnancy test, honestly not expecting it to say PREGNANT. I felt a rush of emotions. ‘What are people going to think?’ The morning after the ultrasound, the nurse said, ‘Her esophagus isn’t connected to her stomach.’ She went in for surgery at 4 days old. ‘We found something else.’ How could the doctors have missed this? ‘We need to cut both sides of her chest.'”