“He was slowly beginning to wake. I couldn’t wait to see his big brown eyes. I wasn’t expecting the first thing out of his mouth to be, ‘So, how did things go?’ I still hadn’t come up with the best way to tell him. I knew I wouldn’t be able to lie. The room once again was silent. ‘Kyle, I love you. We will get through this together.’”
“I sat in the waiting room hoping a pair of glasses would be my silver bullet fix. Unfortunately, what I was met with is something I’m embarrassed to retell. Aiden wiped away tears. ‘You mean my brain isn’t broken?,’ he asked. ‘No buddy. Far from it.'”
“I had been placed in a small, windowless hospital room that was 80 degrees. I was rotating between sweating because I was warm to shivering from having cold sweats. The medicines from labor were messing with me. I tried to keep it together but whenever a nurse left my room, I burst out crying. There was so much paperwork to fill out. I was alone.”
“‘I will not be leaving her side,’ I responded in the clearest daddy-bear tone I had. Dad’s on guard. It was the look in the new doctor’s eyes that told me, I needed to go. I kissed my perfect baby girl goodbye. I’m the bug being drawn into the glowing light of the bug-zapper. Like a true ‘lamb-to-the-slaughter’ walk.”
“It was the only time we had with her. We were able to hold her and see her sweet face, it was beautiful. ‘Everything happens for a reason. At least you have one.’ They are poking the wound. The gravity of what happened to us is too hard for people to imagine.”
“I said, ‘You’re so lucky to have such a nice teacher. When I was in third grade my teacher didn’t like me. When my desk would get really messy, she would take my desk in front of the whole room and dump it upside down and make me clean it all back up.’ I thought he’d be shocked or mad on my behalf, but nope. ‘That’s just so sad mom.'”
“Ray, the epitome of health, awoke to a terrible migraine. I asked for a cat scan. ‘He is FINE,’ I was told. I knew in the depths of my soul something wasn’t right. 20 minutes later, the same doctor and 3 nurses rushed in. The door flew open so hard it bounced off the wall! The nurses ripped cords from walls, tossed his belongs on the stretcher. ‘Whoa, what’s going on?!’ The doctor, without even looking at us, said, ‘We found a mass. It’s the largest I’ve ever seen.’ He turned and left the room, never to be seen again.”
“I saw a man walk onto my porch, then he bent down like he was hiding. So, I was like, ‘Hell no, you aren’t about to steal my Halloween decorations.’ I grab a baseball bat and the dog, open the door, jump out and literally yell ‘Freeze!’ The man stands up, and he’s holding a pair of underwear. I’m like, ‘You dirty old man, you’re on my porch smelling underwear.’ I’m out here swinging this baseball bat and he’s screaming, ‘Wait! Wait!’”
“It was a busy morning. I got the triplets ready, grabbed towels and sand toys, and headed out the door. We picked up sandwiches on our way. My husband was going to run in to pick up our food, but I told him I would because I had to pee. I ran in and ran out. We were on our way. Minutes after we were back on the road, I realized it. Instant panic.”
“When he didn’t show up after work, I began to worry. It was dark now, past our son’s bedtime. Finally, we found him. In the ICU of the hospital. I jumped out of the car at the ER entrance, ran to the elevator. ‘Walk, please!’ the security guard called after me. A young man finally came out to speak to us. He was talking in past tense.”
