“On my son’s birthday, I laid on the floor, belly-down, with my hands on my chest to force myself not to hyperventilate. Minutes later, I rejoined the party with a smile on my face. ‘I am fine,’ I told myself.”
‘I had one job: protect my children. The next day he was gone and there was no way to get him back. I felt myself slipping away from reality.’
‘I lounged on the couch, eating fried food and Oreos. I binge watched TV shows. To be honest, I disappeared from the normal world.’
“Ever since my breast reduction, my cancer diagnosis, my husband accepting a new job, packing up the house to move, staying 6 months and moving right back, I haven’t wanted to move an INCH. Then, just like that, my season of rest was over.”
‘It could be worse.’ Yes. It could be worse. No, I didn’t lose my child. But our children, my child, have lost a lot.’
“Some of you are screaming at me right now, ‘WE GET IT – YOU HAVE A SPECIAL NEEDS CHILD.’ But I wonder still, do you get it? We don’t know if we will ever get to hear him say ‘I love you.'”
‘A stranger put hands on my child. When my 2-year-old son pushed hers, I immediately said I was sorry. She ignored my apology. It’s wrong, and it’s not okay.’
“I went home and cried. His high-five was left unmet as the other mother shooed him away and said to her toddler, ‘You don’t have to touch him, honey.’ There’s no way that woman could’ve known, but the day before she swatted at my son, he was diagnosed with autism.”
‘Please don’t blame yourself, Mom.’ He wrote his goodbye letter. How could I have missed this?’: Mom loses son to suicide after meth addiction, sees ‘amazing signs’ from him
“He was standing in the driveway looking very frazzled. ‘You know the one thing you told me never to do?’ He was determined to beat this addiction. ‘This is not real, this cannot be real.’ I was in shock. My beautiful boy was gone. And the signs began.”
‘My father secretly recorded videos of me naked. I wanted nothing but my mother’s love and support. ‘Get out of my house,’ she told me.’
“I wouldn’t allow him to have power over me any longer. I stood up and walked out of the house. No one followed, no one cared. I had angels flying over me that night.”
‘My daughter was fed a cashew. She had itchy ears within 5 minutes, but was still playing. It all changed moments later. She started blacking out.’: Mom shares daughter’s severe nut allergies
“It snuck up on us so unexpectedly and quietly. I expected to see choking, gasping, hear wheezing, see her grabbing at her chest and neck area. It was actually very silent.”
‘He introduced me to his parents as ‘the woman he wants to marry.’ Our marriage shocked them. When I held our baby girl in my arms, skin to skin, everything was perfect. Until it wasn’t.’
“He wanted to bid on me but didn’t have enough money at the time. He couldn’t go home with regret. He walked over to me.”
‘There’s good news and there’s bad news,’ my dad told me. ‘They found out what’s wrong with Mom.’: Family comes together to care for mom with dementia
“After 2 years of troubling behavior with my mom, and doctors assuring us there was nothing wrong, we finally had concrete answers. Dad’s voice caught in his throat and tears welled in his eyes. He said the word we most feared.”
‘I woke up in a different country, in a tattoo parlor, after a night of drinking. I have no idea how we were allowed on the plane. All I had was my passport.’
“I had no luggage, and was wearing my clothes from the night before. That night changed everything for me.”