“Recently, I have come across a lot of people making fun of these shoes. In fact, it’s coming from a lot of parents with children (shaking my head). So, what happens? Your kid goes to school, sees the less fortunate student who has on the ‘off brand’ and now your child is mimicking YOU and bullying another student. Please quit teaching kids that name brands means something.”
“I got a call that my 3-year-old had been left at Disney daycare at 2 a.m. The daycare worker called the police. My husband was a master manipulator. This was the last straw. We fled to another state. One night, I got a knock on my apartment door. The door NO ONE knew where I was. My ex was released from jail 2 days prior. With every being in my bones, I knew it was him.”
“My son kept holding his right side and screaming. They told me he was ‘just constipated’. ‘Constipation shouldn’t be making him scream.’ They thought I was some crazy helicopter mom. The doctor’s response? ‘Well, if it was real pain, you holding and consoling him wouldn’t be making him feel better like it is now.’ Boy, was she wrong. I could feel in my spirit something was wrong with my baby boy.”
“I awoke to the worst kind of alarm clock: a thud. My healthy, 31-year old husband hitting the floor. When his heart stopped, and his body dropped, he didn’t just fall gracefully to the ground. He hit our bedside table and broke his back. That break restarted his heart. Miracle.”
“I was home alone. I completely broke down after this phone call. A part of me believed he didn’t have it. Maybe a part of me just wished he didn’t have it. ‘Look at him,’ my husband told me. ‘Think of how hard he fought to be here. He is the best thing to ever happen to us, and we have this under control.’ As long as we all had each other, we would live the best life – and I believed him.”
“The pain got so bad. I pulled over on the side of the freeway and called my dad, begging him to come get me. I became confused, disoriented. I remember thinking I could understand why my mother took her own life. It made me realize I either had to fight for my own health, or continue to fade away. I had to be stronger than my mom was. I couldn’t stop fighting.”
“‘Mom, can I go to a slumber party?’ It was 5 minutes away. Of course, we said yes. ‘Be careful. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’ The mother of the birthday girl became ill, so she asked her daughter to host. Instead, she took our kids to the liquor store, brought 30-year-old men in the house. A helium tank was brought out. My daughter kept pulling her head away. The man insisted it wouldn’t hurt. Nobody saw it coming.”
“She said sorry so many times in the end that I lost count of how often she mentioned it. I wish I would have stopped right there in the middle of all that chaos that death brings and all the stress and regret that comes with it, and just grabbed her hand.”
“Family life will nickel and dime you. It’ll squeeze you until you’ve got nothing left. Then it’ll squeeze you even harder. And right when you think you’re completely tapped out and you don’t have what it takes… You walk in on a moment like this.”
“A man had a sign that said, ‘Tell your future for a gold coin.’ I laughed, and told him my name. He stared at me for a while, told me I had mysterious eyes, then finally said, ‘Tell little Laura it’s okay. She’s safe now. Know it’s going to be ok.’”
