“My anxiety hit a fever pitch. Yesterday, my child was happily climbing on rocks and pretending to be a cat with her friend by the water. I couldn’t shake the feeling something bad was going to happen. I was shaking out of my skin.”
‘I still reach for him in bed. I still think I hear him coming in from work. I have to force myself to live.’: Widow suffering from PTSD says, ‘I can hear him telling me to get back up and fight’
‘As I prepared to tell her sisters she was no longer with us, I heard a bird chirping. I’ve heard that bird every day since.’: Bereaved mom ‘finds comfort’ in signs left by daughter
“Someone who has been down our same road of losing a child said, ‘We believe our angel comes back as a dragonfly. It had me thinking about what Kinsley would come back as. Never in a million years would I have thought a damn bird.”
‘I threw plates across the kitchen, and threatened to hurt my sister. ‘Accept that you’re never going to get better.’: Anorexia survivor says ‘recovery can only come from within’
“At my weekly doctor’s appointment, I could no longer hold the manipulation and I peed all over the scale. It was the most extreme weight manipulation my doctor said she had ever seen, and again, I was forced into treatment.”
‘You can go home now.’ How could I leave him? I felt as if a black cloud surrounded us.’: Couple’s last baby born with Down syndrome, ‘Our precious bonus child is a gift’
“All I wanted was to run down the hall to the NICU, scoop my baby up, and run away. Away from all the seemingly bad news. I didn’t want to know any more.”
‘How are you holding up?’ I gripped the steering wheel, my eyes so blurry I couldn’t see the road. She isn’t a friend I talk with often, but she’s a friend who asks the tough questions, and then just shuts up.’: Woman thankful for true friend during hardships
“My mom had just been diagnosed with advanced cancer, and I was also busy caring for a newborn along with a potty-training two-year-old. ‘How are you REALLY holding up?’ She gave me THE LOOK—you know, the ‘don’t BS with me’ look.”
‘Today I wore a mask to Target with lipstick underneath. It’s automatic, and I keep forgetting about the mask.’: Woman says she is wearing a mask to protect others, ‘It is not living in fear, it is siding with science’
“No one could see my really cute lipstick I just applied before I put my mask. I was hot. I was uncomfortable. My glasses were foggy. You do you’ is really no way to plow through a pandemic.”
‘It started with sharp stomach pains. Two days later, I was hunched over, trying to catch my breath. My body felt like I’d ran a marathon.’: 21-year-old nurse recovering from COVID-19 urges ‘nobody is too young’
“When I arrived at the ER, that’s when things started to get critical. It’s like my body knew I was finally in the right place, in the right care, and it could stop fighting. My lips and turned blue and my oxygen dropped. I couldn’t stand up any longer. Both lungs revealed patches where COVID-19 was present.”
‘I was told my chances of getting pregnant were 15%. To this, I took the Pee Wee Herman approach of ‘LA-LA-LA-LA I can’t hear you.’: Woman gives advice for those struggling with infertility, ‘Know your options’
“You probably spent your whole life trying to NOT get pregnant. Taking the pill, using condoms, panicking when your period was a few days late, taking a pregnancy test with your girlfriends and praying you wouldn’t see two pink lines. Now here you are, desperately hoping.”
‘Jack was screaming for over 10 hours, no tears. ‘Did you forget how to hold a baby?’ The nurse took him out of my arms.’: Mom advocates for son with rare epilepsy after multiple misdiagnoses
“A tight smile on my face and a pang in my heart, I joked along, but something felt off. His painful cries stopped, and his little body became rigid with eyes that would no longer focus. I was done trying to not be the overly sensitive mom – it was time to sound some alarms. After only knowing our son for 5 short days, he was taken away on a helicopter in critical condition.”
‘TikTok people are making fun of kids like my six-year-old son, and I am not okay with it. It completely devastates me.’: Mom of autistic child reacts to TikTok bullying, ‘We need to do better’
“They are at home making videos about how people like my son move, jump, flap, bounce and dance to express themselves. We are supposed to laugh and be entertained? Well, we are not.”