“I didn’t know that all the days of you asking me for my time, would turn into me asking you for yours. I didn’t know how fast the years would fly by.”
‘I didn’t know this was the last time. I miss you.’
‘If I drink beer, maybe they’ll like me. If I smoke this, maybe they’ll like me.’: Childhood bullying victim shares journey to self-love
“I thought the bullying would stop when my mom died of cancer, but it returned full force. I remember being yanked off my feet by my ponytail, blood running down my leg. I still wasn’t good enough, so I dropped out. When I returned to school at 31, a mother of 3 kids, I thought the same failure awaited me again. I was absolutely terrified.”
‘Hun, whatcha doing? You ok?’ Silence. ‘Hun…?’ I tried turning the knob. Locked. My heartbeat grew faster.’: Woman struggles to overcome husband’s death from heroin overdose
“We went to bed, said our ‘I love you’s.’ Exhausted. He rubbed my back as I drifted off to sleep. At 5:00 a.m., I awoke to use the bathroom. I guess he couldn’t sleep? He wasn’t in bed. He must be downstairs. The TV wasn’t on. No living room lights. Just a faint glow from the bottom of the bathroom door. I couldn’t save him.”
‘After the diagnosis, we found out we were pregnant. ‘We don’t have enough time! How am I supposed to raise my children without him?’: Woman honors late father-in-law after passing from tongue cancer with special name for new daughter
“We were excited and broken. For much of my pregnancy, I struggled knowing that my baby would never meet the greatest man ever. He had this thing where he nicknamed each child on delivery day. Pistol, Bullet, Slug, and Cricket. There was so much anticipation for him to walk into that delivery room and call him by his ‘name’.”
‘I BEGGED my mom to get my stepfather out of my bed. He would just ‘fall asleep’ there. How convenient for him. I started thinking my mother knew, and just didn’t care.’: Mom uses past sexual abuse to help others, starts foundation
“In third grade, we moved. I thought it was so fancy! Surely nothing bad can happen in the suburbs. I slept over at my friend’s house one night, and was woken by something startling. I froze, I didn’t know what to do. I started to silently cry. ‘Why isn’t my friend waking up? If she wakes up he will stop.'”
‘My father would dress up for dates with other women as my mother cried, ‘Please stay. I’ll forgive you!’ He’d disappear weeks at a time.’: Woman claims ‘the cycle of abuse can end with you’
“His secret life became an open book. My mother would wake me at 3:00 a.m. on school nights to sneak my father’s phone from the bedroom. I’d translate endless emails he wrote to various women. He was unfaithful. She’d collapse at my knees and sob. One day, I walked into the office. I opened the filing cabinet and flipped to the very back. There, I uncovered a large yellow folder. My innocence was ripped away.”
‘A nurse approached me. ‘You’re going in now.’ I could see my mother’s eyes watering. Terrified, I took one final glimpse at my leg. I didn’t expect what was coming next.’
“They took me away. Everything felt weird. I put on a brave face. It was going to be my first ever surgery, and it was a BIG one. It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made. Watching my mother accept that her oldest son was going to have his leg cut off was heart-breaking for me.”
‘He would literally fling his arms out from his body over and over again from morning until night.’: Parents shocked to learn of son’s PANDAS diagnosis
“We had absolutely no idea what was going on. His behavior was changing. He’d been in daycare since he was 12 weeks old and LOVED his school. Now he’d cling to us at drop off and require 15 hugs before we could – with him still screaming and crying- finally leave him. We assumed he was ‘going through a phase.’ I felt like we were ‘losing’ him.”
‘There’s 1 thing NO ONE prepares you for as you enter parenthood. You feel like you’ve been pregnant 87 months. Next, that 7-pound baby you brought home is nowhere to be found.’
“The minutes creep by so slowly. You want to rush past the stage of night feedings, teething, and being so needed all the time. Then, before you know it, their childhood is slipping right through your fingers.”
‘I crashed the party my daughter was at. I rolled up to hear, ‘drink, drink!’ I had visions of my sweet girl suspended in the air as she gulped beer.’: Widow urges other parents ‘let them enjoy the beauty of just being a kid’
“I raced to the front porch, paralyzed. Do I swing open the door and just run in? Do I call the cops? As I stood with my hand up in the knocking position, the door opened.”