“I was losing weight and missing school a few days a week. I was in bed all week but when Friday rolled around, I insisted on going to the St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast. I barely remember the morning. We went on stage and just as the piano started, everything went black.”
“She didn’t laugh as much. She didn’t recognize me, and she wasn’t able to hold a conversation. I couldn’t believe the timing. It felt like a sign from my grandfather. I knew what I had to do.“
“I knew something was wrong. A nurse came in and said Ellis had stopped breathing in the nursery twice. ‘She’s at high risk for significant developmental disabilities.’ He encouraged my husband and I to have a conversation about what to do if our baby didn’t wake up.”
”Right before I was wheeled into the OR we discovered he, too, was not only a Buckeye but also graduated from the same small high school I graduated from. It gave all of us much more reassurance I was exactly where I needed to be at the exact right time. Mini miracle inside a big miracle.”
“This was not, ‘Hey this isn’t working for me anymore. I hope we can still be friends.’ I found out he cheated on me, took my money, sold me a car he had pawned the title to. ‘I’ll have her taken away from you if you’re not careful.’”
“My daughter is starting kindergarten. She’ll be wearing a mask, staying 6 ft apart from others, and eating in her classroom. As we drew, I explained the new way school would be operating. This was now turning into something I never could have imagined.”
“Somehow, the conversation led to relationships. We were just having a typical, texting conversation. I’m not entirely sure where this intense, urgent feeling of freedom came from. We were just having a typical, texting conversation. I was acting SO ridiculous and I suddenly felt a moment of empowerment.”
“And then the unthinkable happened. Lots of crying, hitting, and aggression. But I was not ready to quit.”
“It was a completely deserted area: I saw a lone person sitting on the window seat. ‘Sir, Sir?’ I got no response. Against my better judgement, I reached out and touched his shoulder. He lifted his head and looked at me. I threw down the mail in my hand and my purse. ‘Can’t breathe.’”
“When her head hits the pillow, her mind suddenly wakes up. And then, it gets really freaking mean. ‘Why aren’t you in better shape?’ it hisses in her head. ‘Your husband is aging better than you.’ By two, she’s exhausted from the thoughts, the Googling, and the tears.”
