“I got a call I could have never expected. ‘The doctor thinks I may have cancer.’ Our dreams and future slipped out of our grasp. I looked at that little stick and thought, ‘Maybe things are looking up after all.’ But I just had this feeling deep down in my gut something wasn’t right.’”
“A text came through that said, ‘Get to the hospital now.’ I thought it was a typo. His dad carried his limp and lifeless body into the hospital. I was shaking and screaming. ‘No! Not my baby, not my Ricky.”
“Her body was too small to close over her swollen heart. Piles of machinery overwhelmed her metal crib. I hesitantly brought a small box into the ICU. Inside was a blanket and matching hair bow. I was shocked by how stunning she looked.”
“I was sleeping in hospital chairs at 20-something-weeks pregnant, walking a bridge back and forth between the children’s hospital and the cancer center, visiting my mom who was undergoing treatment for her second round of cancer. All while my husband was laid-off for needing time to help watch our other children.”
“The phone call came early afternoon. I should have known something was wrong. ‘Excuse me? I’m not even supposed to be at risk.’”
“The room was silent. Shortly after, the commotion from the NICU team began. I screamed. I yelled. I cried and sobbed as my husband sat next to me, holding my hand, feeling emotions I can’t even imagine as he watched his baby and his wife fall apart in a matter of seconds.”
“I like to go through my pictures of Aiden. The people in them have no idea what is coming. I always slow down as I get close to the day he was diagnosed. Maybe I’m trying to stop it from happening.”
“I held her down while they poked the biggest needle I had ever seen into her back. The acid was destroying the white matter of her brain. That’s when it hit me. ‘There’s no cure.’”
“I used to make breakfasts for kids in footie pajamas, swinging their legs at my kitchen counter. Now, I make four frozen pizzas at once, trying to keep up with how much these tall kids are eating. I used to stay up at night worrying about what they ate that day. Now, I stay awake hoping they are driving safely.”
“I’m an employee with no sick days, no breaks, and working double-time on holidays.”
