“She cautiously hugged his leg. He wrapped his arms around her. ‘Hi, Daddy.’ He pulled her in tighter. I’m sure he was afraid his voice would break, or the tears would flow. She left, like I asked her to. By the time I made it back to his hospital room, he couldn’t breathe. I was confused. ‘He will not make it through the night.’ I shook my head. ‘Impossible.’ He was fine just 20 minutes before when our daughter was here.”
“My friend asked if I wanted to stay the night. I couldn’t, but asked if she wanted to stay at my house. Before I could even finish, she told me ‘no.’ I shrugged it off, no big deal. A week later, she saw my whole family. That’s when I recognized the fear in her eyes. She had not seen my stepdad since then.”
“I always called my mom on my way home from work, but she wasn’t answering, so for some reason I felt the need to call my brother, Tim. He was at a friend’s house swimming. I heard my nieces and nephews playing in the background. I never thought that would be the last time I’d hear Gabby’s little voice.”
“’I don’t know what to do!’ I was woken up throughout the night by a little girl screaming for her papa. Waking up crying for my Ben. The reality was unbearable. I was staring at a life I didn’t want.”
“I left a passionate comment to a post that read, ‘I work in a hospital. I overheard a coworker in the break room say they hate wasting time on these worthless addicts.’ I cried with the mom who shared a photo of a beautiful young woman, the caption reading, ‘My baby was found dead today.’”
“This blew my whole mind. I’ve dated this man, lived with him, even had a child with him and NEVER knew. I never caught on. I haven’t been able to get ahold of him, I’ve been worried sick. He is currently using and living in his truck. My son runs around screaming, crying for his daddy. If you ever read this A.J. we miss you, we love you, and we will never give up on you.”
“The bonus is, it’s not contagious. You wouldn’t expect the person with a really bad flu to get up and do stuff, no way! So, tell them to rest up. Lay out in their pajamas. Surround them with pillows and things that make them happy. You would never tell them to snap out of the flu!”
“People often feel awkward asking questions about my daughter. Penny gets sidelined from activities and events because they don’t know how to welcome her. The message of inclusion is, ‘We want you here with us.’ But belonging emerges from a deep desire to not just include the ‘other,’ but to love and be loved.”
“I’m literally doing the bare minimum by loving my wife for who she is, ‘imperfections’ and all. Sure, things look and feel slightly different — but in the grand scheme of things, nothing changed. The reasons I fell in love with her had nothing to do with her body.”
“I got a message on social media from the guy I had dated and lost my virginity to as a teenager. I hadn’t talked to him in a decade. At first, it started out with us just catching up. I enjoyed the friendship and connection. In the beginning, that’s all it was. It breaks my heart to write these words. Something had to give. Something had to change.”
