“I realize I eavesdropped a bit more than I intended. But when you’ve lost a baby – these moments have a way of finding you.”
‘I couldn’t help but overhear their conversation. The woman shared that her grandmother had a son. He died immediately after he was born. Someone took photographs to show her later – because they knew she’d never get to see him.’
‘STOOOOPPPP!’ I could no longer rationalize his strange and uncomfortable behavior.’: Sexual assault survivor bravely speaks up after 20 years, urges ‘you are not your story’
“I would witness dual sides of his personality. One would be full of love and laughter as a family man and the other would be animalistic and cruel. I felt like his prey. An outsider greatly misunderstood. I began to question whether or not it was my fault and if I’d somehow given him the wrong impression. I was sworn to secrecy.”
‘I thought moving mom and dad to an assisted living home would give us a moment to breathe. If I said I was suffocating, that would not be far from an exaggeration.’
“My dad stares off into the distance as he tries to figure out how it all came to this. Why is the woman he loves here, but gone?”
‘I’ve never been with anyone with this lifestyle nor have I have been with a girl, but now that I’ve gotten to know him, I don’t want it any other way.’: Woman dates trans person, details amazing journey He is the love of my life.’
“I didn’t think someone like her would be willing to love someone like me. But I was wrong.”
She said, ‘NO. You’re going to go sit down and enjoy your dinner, and I will be there to sit with her!’
“I went to find our waitress to ask if she could please bring my food out in a To-go box because we were going out to sit in the car…”
‘I am a mom of 3-year-old triplets. I have heard ‘I don’t love you today’ every single day this week.’
“My worth is not defined in the mean things my 3-year-old’s say to me, but the ‘I don’t love you’s’ hurt.”
‘My initial reaction was to text the teacher and ask if she could hold one for him. But then I thought, ‘No, you’d better not.’: Mom grapples with giving son special treatment
“And then it dawned on me: This. This is why moms are so exhausted.”
‘I can do this.’ I’d get my baggies, needle, tie off my hand, and in the heroin went. ‘Just not today.’ I was using in secret. All day, every day.: Woman overcomes drug addiction, now works as nurse fighting ‘the opiate epidemic’
“I’d snort a bunch of pills before a party, drink, pass out, and wake up completely unaware of what happened. My boyfriend was suspicious, but I covered up my drug use. That was before the needle. I said I’d never use one. Needles were for junkies, and I was not that. But my dealer shot me up. It was the most amazing, intense rush of warm, pure happiness I’d ever experienced, and I’d chase that feeling for years. There are so many times I should’ve been arrested, should’ve overdosed, should’ve died, but I didn’t.”
‘In truth, I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to be (just) me anymore. I have found such comfort and safety in being a mother.’
“I was married young. I was pregnant soon after. I followed my husband’s career and livelihood. And all I keep hearing is: ‘Well, what are you going to make of this, Wendy?'”
‘She grabbed the two babies, was crawling, saying she couldn’t breathe.’ Heroic mom dies shielding 10-month-old daughter from gunfire
“My granddaughter, thank God she’s still here. As my daughter tried to protect the kids, she lost her life. We consider her a hero.”