“I’m more uncomfortable in the grocery store, without my mask and gloves or hand sanitizer, than I am at the hospital. To the people dropping off masks and food for those of us on the front lines, we appreciate it more than you know.”
‘We picked up our food and the girl at the register bagging up the food had a cough! She was coughing and packing people’s orders!’: Nurse thanks community for acts of kindness, ‘This is not a drill’
‘Nutrition staff show up, knowing school breakfast and lunch might be the only meals kids eat.’: Mom, Director of Food & Nutrition Services creates ‘positivity bananas’ to give kids a smile
“With so many kids already receiving free or reduced-price meals, how are families going to cope if they lose their income AND school meals? I wondered what I could do to bring back some of the happiness the kids feel at school while in the lunchroom, with their favorite teacher, or playing at recess.”
‘I thought I was dying. The pain was so bad, all I did was writhe and vomit for 8 hours. After it was over, I felt an incredible emptiness.’: Woman claims lemonade cliché is true, ‘All this tragedy happened for a reason’
“Our loss had to be so bad that it was newsworthy. Without it, Mac wouldn’t be here with us. If I didn’t believe it before, I now most certainly knew that every damn thing that happened TO ME over the last 40 years of my life actually happened FOR ME.”
‘My girl fought when I tried to give her some medicine to help with her cough. So much so that she peed on my bed and me.’: Mom says ‘I cried about everything, and, that is okay; it’s allowed’
“I stepped in dog poop. I cried tonight because I felt spent. I watched a video on how, in Spain, they don’t have enough ventilators, and so no one over the age of 65 is getting them, only the young. And then I cried a little more because I felt guilty for feeling spent.”
‘We met at an empty parking lot at 7 a.m. and chatted from the safety of our trunks. Your people help you cope with the unknowns.’: Woman praises mom tribe during quarantine, ‘I’m lucky to have found my people’
“We will do everything we need to do to keep each other’s families safe and sane until we can hug each other again. I’m lucky to have found my people.”
‘It is Day 14 of quarantine in my house with my two children. I don’t know what to do with myself right now. I feel overwhelmed and antsy.’: Woman says during quarantine ‘One breath. One step. One hour at a time. We will carry on.’
“One breath. One step. One hour at a time. We will carry on, in whatever manner we can. Not because we are in control or because we know things, but because we choose to show up and love every piece of ourselves. Steady on, my friends. We are in this together.”
‘I still wanted to be the nurse who helped. 365 days ago, you died. I still wake up in the night crying for you.’: Woman who lost partner to overdoes says ‘though your death broke me, I think your death rebuilt me
“You texted me at 10:34 p.m., and I responded two minutes later…but you never responded back because it was too late. Your death wrecked me but your life and love and death made me the nurse (and person) I am today.”
‘She’s cancelled the baby shower. She stands alone, quarantined, for her first prenatal appointment. There will be no visitors—at the hospital or at home.’: Woman pregnant during pandemic says ‘I will choose to be fearless’
“Mom-to-be should have been preparing the nursery, spending way too much time shopping for baby’s perfect take-home outfit. Instead, she’s buying diapers and wipes online—worried there may not be enough to go around. She thinks of her husband—will he be allowed to see his son come into this world?”
‘Something hard cracked over the back of my head. I could feel his fingers on my neck, checking for a pulse to see if he’d just committed murder.’: After surviving domestic abuse woman says ‘don’t stand by in silence’
“I woke up that morning and I just felt this bad feeling. I felt a searing pain. I remember dropping to my knees, the cat taking off, and my bag going flying. As darkness was taking over, I felt my body being flipped around. The last thing I saw before everything went black were C’s eyes looking down at me. It was my own personal horror story.”
‘Will my husband stay at home and miss the birth?’ My contractions were 8 minutes apart. I was shrieking in pain.’: Mom births baby during pandemic, ‘We pray we can all embrace again’
“Our parents cancelled their flights. We debated what to do. With each contraction, I started cursing for my husband. I needed him. In a movie-worthy scene, my husband arrived, breathless, as I dug my fingernails into his hand. Being in the midst of a pandemic while becoming a mother is something I truly never anticipated.”