“I was losing clumps of hair. I assumed it was stress because we just moved for my husband’s job. My doctor asked about my children. She was the first doctor who actually had a conversation with me. Then she dropped a bomb. ‘I’m prescribing you an anti depressant.’ I left the appointment bawling. ‘Who does she think she is!? She didn’t know everything I’ve been through!'”
“After an hour, the other moms packed up their girls to go over to ballet class. As the 3 other girls galloped around excitedly while their mothers located shoes, my daughter crawled into my lap. I clung to her with matching heartache. We weren’t just saying no to ballet for the day. We were saying goodbye to a childhood.”
“I came home from work, tired and weary. I crawled out of my car and shuffled past it. The open space where the mini fridge USED to be. ‘Did I get burglarized?’ Then, steam poured from my ears. ‘Teenagers!!!,’ I exclaimed. I balled my fists, losing my ever-loving mind. Oh, they know. Momma is ticked.”
“David is autistic, has no communication skills, and is completely homebound due to medical conditions. He has never had a birthday party with children his own age. His outings outside the home are severely limited. Recently, his grandmother, who is one of his best friends, passed away. I knew he was lonely. How could he not be? Then, for the first time, he spoke. I was floored.”
“I flushed with my eyes sealed shut. I cried more tears than I knew possible. ‘I’m so sorry,’ I said. What kind of mother flushes her baby? I hoped I was wrong. I hoped you were still there. But I knew. A mother always knows. Everyone kept apologizing. I didn’t know why because it wasn’t their fault. It was mine. I had one job, to protect you, and I couldn’t even do that.”
“Each day, we wait and wonder. Will there be a new word? Does she understand ours? Being a mother and knowing how to speak to your child that cannot speak. When they create the word for that – let me know.”
“She caught me by surprise. ‘What would you do if I dated a girl?’ I immediately told her, ‘If you date a girl, you’re going to hell.’ The instant the words escaped my lips, something else hit me harder than the fear of my child in hell. I broke her heart. I never thought my child would be gay. I began noticing small cuts on her arms. I was losing her. I would have risked anything for her to find herself and be happy.”
“I was in line to get help at the Apple Store. When my husband died, he took his computer wizardry tricks with him. This bridezilla went on for 20 minutes about wedding details, dresses, annoyances. I looked at her and said, ‘Will you still love him on the brink of death?’ I told this poor bride-to-be I was a widow. I couldn’t help it. I broke. ‘Someday, you’ll see none of this matters.’ She was stunned.”
“I traded a life of steady income and comfort for a life on the streets in order to support my addiction. I slept in homeless camps, under bridges, along railroad tracks, and in strangers’ houses. My sign, ‘Support my whiskey right for a frisky night,’ made more money than any other sign asking for help. I was living on the street, so no one cared. It came with the territory.”
“This couldn’t be happening to me. I couldn’t breathe, and to top it off my husband was out of town on business. I tried calling him and he didn’t answer. ‘This can’t be how my story ends.’”
