“‘You need to stop what you’re doing or you’ll end up dead.’ I’d see him drive by with another woman. When my mom decided to divorce him, he didn’t show up. We stood at the court house and looked out the window from the top floor. The doctor approached my brother and I. ‘You have to make a decision to let him off the machines.’ We still had so many questions.”
“It’s looking for him in the early hours of the morning while the kids sleep in the car, praying I don’t find him dead on the road. It’s being quiet in the house because he claims there are cameras everywhere and people standing outside the window watching our every move. It’s tucking my kids into my arms and saying sorry over and over again. ‘Maybe this is his last one, just maybe.’”
“Mothers so often come last.”
“After having my own accident that caused a permanent disability, I had to advocate for myself and my kids. 8 of 11 of them are special needs. There are many days I want to pull my hair out, but I never look back and think, ‘Why me?’ I am forever grateful to be their mama.”
“I’ve been sick for over 3 weeks with what we suspect is COVID-19, so my husband has had to stay home to watch our kids. Today, I have fallen in love with him all over again. He truly will do anything in his power to make us all smile.”
“Within a week of getting a positive pregnancy test, I could barely function. This darkness was scary and not something I had the tools to combat. It was like I was gone, and there was no magic solution to get me back.”
“We knew the symptoms would get worse. That one day, the smile that made my heart flutter would lose its spark. We were on ‘borrowed time.’ The parademics tried to resuscitate him. His heart stopped beating 3 times. Until his very last breath, Lucas made sure we had the time we all needed to know he was at peace.”
“I didn’t answer right away. I wanted to listen. He went on to say, ‘I remember when I was little mama and Cooper had it. I couldn’t figure him out. I used to think he was from a different planet because he screamed all the time.’ He sighed. ‘I just wish sometimes it would go away so we could talk.'”
“We snuck around town stealing moments of friendship when we could. I want something different for my 7-year-old daughter.”
“Without a full-time job weighing me down, I was going to be the domestic goddess I had always dreamed of becoming. A cookie-baking trophy wife who worked out regularly, kept a beautiful home, and had a fiery libido. His life would get SO MUCH BETTER. Needless to say, I am none of those things.”
