“No one sat with him at lunch time. Kids laughed when he stimmed or made mistakes. He was kept in during recess to ‘think about his behavior.’ My wife and I couldn’t reconcile this with the child we knew. At home, he was calm and followed directions; at school, he became disruptive.”
“If I could go back to that girl walking down the aisle, crying as she looked at the love of her life, thinking this was forever, I wouldn’t whisper in her ear to not do it.”
“Let your daughter hear you stick up for yourself, never accept disrespect. Let your daughter see you reach out your hand to another woman, pulling her up until she’s steady enough to stand on her own.”
“I stood standing in the church parking lot, tears pouring from my eyes. ‘I don’t think you’ll let me come back to church.’ I was correct.”
“Sarah got down on one knee after telling me to turn the dessert menu over, which read ‘Will you marry me?’ on the back. I effortlessly said yes. Before Sarah could sit down, I reached into my purse, pulled out a ring, and said, ‘Only if you marry me.'”
“I took on the role of a wife. I catered to him, cooked, cleaned, took care of my children, and took care of myself IF I had time.”
“I’ve had people question everything I do, putting barriers in front of me, assuming I’m incapable of doing something a typical person can do.”
“We’re told, over and over again, to avoid accidental pregnancies. ‘It only takes one time!’ But for us, that wasn’t the case.”
“The oncologist described it as the ‘good cancer.’ Then in the same breath, he said I had 7 months to live. It didn’t seem very ‘good’ to me.”
“I went to grab his shoulders to shake him awake, but my hand touched something hard. It took a second for my eyes to make out what I was holding. It was the handgun.”
