“An hour later, a girl pointed to my shirt. ‘Hey, free dad hugs!’ The look on her face said everything I needed to know. She hugged me as if she hadn’t seen me in years. She walked away in tears, without ever saying a word. I’m nobody special. I’m just a regular dad.”
“Nothing angers me more than generic water safety messages for parents. As if we don’t already care enough to get them swim lessons. Water safety is NOT that simple. So, this won’t be one of those messages. This one is real, and it is raw I checked ALL the boxes a ‘good mom’ before going to the pool.”
“These moms must have better jobs, better houses, better lives because everything looks perfect. They also all must be alcoholics, because everyone is always drinking all the time. Seriously, how are you not dead? One drink for me. Then one day I got a comment saying how awesome my life must be. My heart sunk.”
“We asked him if he knew what today was. ‘Is it someone’s birthday?,’ he asked. We told him it was his anniversary – what would have been his and mom’s 69th. He started crying. ‘Would you like to go to the cemetery to take her some flowers?’ He sat, in silence.”
“I had experienced years of him ‘bending’ the truth, of him telling me I was ‘too much,’ trying to diagnose me with different types of mental illness. Little did I know, there was more to come. I found reserves I never knew I had, but that’s what moms do. We do everything possible to make sure our children don’t get hurt.”
“I didn’t cry. I actually laughed. There was no possible way my dad could die. When we got to the hospital, he realized I was in the room with him. Just then, he got a surge of energy. ‘You are my sunshine,’ he told me. Seconds later, I walked in and made the decision.”
“My husband had responded to a break and enter complaint and was searching for an intruder. I raced to his side and grabbed his hand. ‘I love you,’ I whispered in his ear. No response. ‘I love you, John.’ And then, it happened again.”
“She said something along the lines of, ‘Please be careful with waiting to allow your child to transition. That can be dangerous.’ And then she proceeded to tell me why.”
“In the middle of our conversation, a woman walked up and stood before us. She had tears in her eyes. She simply asked for a favor. ‘We have to leave, and I was wondering if you guys could launch ours for us.’ She didn’t say why she chose us.”
“I was wearing white jeans. WHITE. Queue the roar of laughter. The jaw drops. The looks of utter disgust. I was mortified. ‘Class is dismissed. Everyone out. NOW.’ He immediately asked if he could give me a hug. I nodded yes through my butt-ugly sobs.”
