“He wouldn’t look at me, he would hand me money and say he wanted a six pack of Natty. He handed me a debit card and a grocery list and told us we could spend $20 on ourselves. I jumped for joy as soon as I shut the window. A couple hair cuts later, he hands me a check.”
“People began to talk and rumors were spreading. ‘You’d do anything to keep your man.’ It all seemed too big and scary. What was bigger and scarier was living without each other.”
“Not the shy ones or the quiet ones. The ones who were too scared to speak up.”
“’I can’t do this anymore.’ I was stuck in molasses, unable to move forward. ‘PTSD? That’s for those in the army, or for major trauma.’ I was speechless.”
“In 1st grade they took my reading score. ‘We’re looking for anything over 50. Over 200 and they’re ready for 2nd grade. Rohan scored 530.’”
“The news came one night when I was teaching a zoom class. I remember holding onto her so tightly, weeping. I had a choice to make. Would I choose to carry the legacy of my late wife or give up?”
“I was covered in hives. My cheeks were flushed, and I gasped for air. ‘I hoped this was the answer.’ I was allergic to my last shot at remission. It had all been for nothing.”
“I quit my job. I avoided a possible catastrophic marriage. Everything I’d kept bottled up was starting to surface. I didn’t have much courage under my belt, but I was still brave.”
“His breathing declined fast. We got a call saying, ‘Come right over, it’s not good.’ It was my daughter’s birthday. I kept all the cards he used to write me.”
“My own mother said, ‘You’re a mistake’ to me and my sisters. I started self-harming and fell into a deep depression. I actually believed what I’d been told.”
