‘Light as a feather, stiff as a board,’ we quietly chanted. We started lifting. Our hearts pounding.’: Mom of teenager recalls spooky slumber party game she convinced them to play, ‘Part of me was terrified’

“We gathered the willing victims. Each of us could hear our hearts pounding. Each of us felt our pulse with the seconds that ticked by. Each of us gasped a little as she rose up from the ground. Inch by inch by inch, her body rose up and floated, barely being supported by our fingers. My friend and I looked at each other, wide-eyed and surprised, mouthing the words, ‘it-works.’”

‘Has she been active? When did she last move?’ They laid her in my arms. Her little body already changed.’: Couple loses daughter in tragic ‘freak accident’ still birth, ‘I will not get over it’over it’

“She was perfectly formed. She had long, narrow toes like her Mama, full beautiful lips like her Daddy. It took my breath away. I was in love. But our sweet baby wasn’t there. We held and kissed her 1,000 times. ‘We will miss you every moment of our lives,’ we told her. I could almost hear her coo. We said goodbye to her little body. They carried her away.”

‘Can I sleep with you tonight mommy?’ I still get chills thinking about it. I cried my eyes out.’: Mom swears her child is ‘the reason I am alive,’ after traumatic relationship leaves her contemplating suicide

“I met this guy who was a little older than me. He had a daughter the same age as mine, it was too good to be true. ‘This is it, this is the guy who’s going to fix what was broken.’ But I learned very quickly how someone could live two totally separate lives. It was a nightmare. In that moment, I swear I heard it loud and clear. ‘I gave you the person who needed you the most.’ My daughter walked into my bedroom.”

‘He took a deep breath. ‘Cady, I have feelings for you.’ My heart started beating. ‘I had to be honest.’: 24-year-old widow marries ‘dear friend’ of late husband after tragically watching him ‘suffocate to death’

“I was 24 years old when I watched my husband suffocate to death. I destroyed the hospital room. I threw things. I screamed. I tried to resuscitate him. And then I lay helplessly on his cold chest and sobbed. But I was not alone that day. Jon was a dear friend of Jordan’s. In our wedding, Jon was one of our ushers. He paused to let me take in what he was saying. ‘I just want what is best for you. If you want me to wait for you, I will.’”

‘We’re going to skip trick-or-treating this year. It’s dark in unfamiliar neighborhoods.’ WHAT?’: Mom appalled by skipping holiday traditions, ‘Sister, grab a pumpkin at the grocery store’

“I’ve seen a lot of ‘don’t feel pressured to do holiday-related things.’ And I call BS on that. Some of you won’t like this message. I get that. But keep your family traditions alive! Maybe they seem mundane to you. Maybe you feel like you can’t get to them this year. Maybe it seems like ‘work’ and ‘why should we even bother.’ But it’s important to your kids.”

‘But mommy, it wasn’t someone else. It was him.’ She hurled herself into my arms, sobbing. She was broken.’: Mom defends daughter branded a ‘liar’ after preschool bully relentlessly torments her

“She was physically assaulted with a metal toy that cut her eye. The bully was ‘dealt’ with… it was ‘rambunctious play!’ My shell of a little girl thought this meant no one liked her. She talked about changing schools. My heart broke. It went on for years. She was defeated at 7 years old.”

‘It is just a joke.’ Life as I knew it came to a screeching halt.’: Woman discovers husband’s infidelity, worked together to ‘fix’ what had been broken, ‘trust can be restored’

“4 years today we have been married. I will never forget. Discovering a secret that would break me to my core. I lay on the bathroom floor, crying my heart out. How did we get to this point? Not only do I have to handle life with 2 children with special needs, but now this? I am strong for taking the route I have, choosing not to give up.”

‘It’s gonna be ok.’ Brad pulled me in to him, tears rolling down his cheeks. My mind couldn’t process.’: Wife loses husband to sudden Stage 4 cancer after beating her own cancer 5 years prior

“The week before, we were celebrating our 8-year wedding anniversary and my 5 years being in remission from my fight with cancer. For 5 years, we held our breath – hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. The week before Brad’s ER visit, we finally exhaled. We talked about our future. Whether or not we wanted kids. Where we’d retire. And then, Brad started having fevers and night sweats, symptoms I was all too familiar with.”

‘Nicole, I had NO IDEA.’ I almost took my own life. I hid it so well. No one knew.’: Woman reminds us to ‘always be kind’ after battling suicide, ‘you never know the battles someone is facing’

“If it weren’t for my sister calling me right before, I wouldn’t be here. She had no idea I’d just written a letter saying ‘goodbye.’ No one knew I was suffering. No one asked if I was okay. I shared only the good parts of my life, never the struggles. My family thought my life was beautiful and amazing.”

‘I’m sorry buddy,’ I heard him whisper. He laid him down. Just like that, Ren was gone.’: Couple’s emotional final moments with newborn son, ‘We feel your peace, you’ll always be our baby boy’

“We got a knock on the door. ‘I’m sorry for your loss, I’m here to take Ren.’ I couldn’t get myself to physically lay Ren in the box. I turned to my husband and asked if he was okay to do it. I saw his heart rip in two. Tears streamed down his face. We tried to take in every detail, remember his newborn smell. We gently took off the cap they gave him. He had tiny little blonde curls.”

‘I’ll shoot you up for the first time,’ the man I was sleeping with offered. I agreed. I lived a double life.’: 25-year-old overcomes prostitution to feed addiction, now manages sober living home for women

“She was a stripper, and she introduced me to the lifestyle. I was infatuated by it. Fast money, flashy life, and drugs galore. It wasn’t long before I started working as a dancer in the strip club, and my life took an even darker turn. I was in the bathroom doing lines of cocaine. She pulled out another bag of drugs that looked different. ‘It’s heroin. Do you want to try it?’ Biggest mistake of my life.”

‘Are you KIDDING? Don’t be a prude. Just take the drink!’ I shook my head no. I was weak. I took it.’: Woman loses father to alcohol poisoning, ‘it is my right not to drink, please respect it’

“At 11, they draped a pale, unfamiliar version of my dad in white. ‘Are you alone?’ I watched a flurry of red and blue police lights dance across my ceiling. Alcohol poisoning. He never returned. You knew my past. Yet, you judged me when I turned down your drink. Did you know, I saw my father in my nightmares that night? Did you know, I was smiling, but dying on the inside? My trauma is more important than your right to a fun time.”

‘What do we do with the remaining embryos?’ We signed away the parental rights. I was in for one more shock: TWINS!’: Couple donates extra embryos to family battling infertility, ‘They were put in our path for a reason!’

“We decided we were done having children, but still had 6 embryos frozen. I created a Facebook profile in hopes of finding a deserving family. I didn’t expect much. Within hours, we had EIGHT families interested. Kate and Seth were put in our path for a reason.”

‘I gave birth to this gorgeous, healthy baby a year after her father’s death.’: Widow gets pregnant with late husband’s baby from saved embryos, ‘now, after his death, it seemed possible’

“‘Sir, you have kidney cancer.’ My husband was 32. It was shocking. Before cancer was our biggest obstacle, infertility was. We chose to freeze his sperm – a decision that would change our lives forever. Two embryos were left over. Our hospital didn’t believe in destroying them, so I had to decide what that meant for me. Before he died, Joel told me, ‘You and I are going to have another baby. It will be a girl, you know what to name her.’”

‘Your child has bite marks,’ the injury report read. She was bitten 5 times, then pushed down the stairs.’: Mom offers empathy to ‘biting child’ parents, ‘nobody in their right mind is judging you’

“You’re probably thinking I went crazy in the daycare office, demanding to know who was biting my daughter. That I threatened to remove her from their care. I did none of those things. ‘How would you feel if your kid was the biter?’ my mom asked. The answer is: terrible. I’m sure the mother of this child thinks I hate her. I absolutely do not. But please try. The school cannot ‘fix’ your child.”

‘In a quiet voice, holding back tears, they asked if they could have ‘their’ dance. YES! You will have your dance!’: Daughters share emotional wedding dance with dying father before it’s too late

“Jason has always been the most attentive father. He’s never missed any of their events. We have raised two daddy’s girls and I was about to break their hearts. Their future suddenly looked very different. The dreams they had of their daddy walking them down the aisle had come to a screeching halt.”

‘Daddy is going to take me from mommy and I will never see her again.’ My memories are dark.’: After years of childhood bullying, woman finally breaks free from trauma, ‘I am free’

“My family would say I was ‘crying wolf, I was fine.’ ‘I wasn’t depressed. To stop faking it.’ I was spiraling. Money was tight for my dad, so we had to stay in the same room. I lived a lie. I woke up, went to school, put on a smile. Then I then came home and fell into darkness. My dad finally made me start paying rent to live with him. I put my key in my apartment door and just sighed with relief. I was free. Free to breathe. No mental abuse. I was free.”

‘I’ve spent life forcing myself to not lose my memories of my mom. I wish I had more photos of her.’: Woman urges parents to take more pictures after losing mom to Ovarian Cancer, ‘one day it is all they will have left’

“If I were to die today, my son would have a collection of photos of me with Instagram filters. Get in front of the camera. Even if you’re on day 3 of dry shampoo and you don’t love the way your body looks. If you were to die today, your child wouldn’t care about any of that. They just want to see YOU, not the overly-filtered woman you post on social media. They want to see you the way they knew you.”

‘Mom, just listen to me for a second.’ We don’t always agree. But you’ll always be my little boy.’: Mom reminisces on son’s younger years, ‘I had no idea how proud or in love I would be’

“You’ve become gifted in the art of rolling your eyes when you disagree. I’m not always good at listening; I know that. But no matter what, you’re still my little boy. Even though your hands are bigger than mine, you’re still my little boy. I had no idea the incredible young man you’d become.”

‘A notification from my husband. How? He’d been dead for 3 years. There’s no way.’: Woman receives spooky signs from late husband letting her know he’s still around, ‘Like a ghost’

“It stopped me in my tracks. There was no way. I clicked out to see if it was an error, but it was still there. I blinked my eyes furiously to make sure I was seeing it right, and I was. I held my hand to my mouth and covered it. He is dead. How can it be possible a dead man could be tagging me in a post? My eyes began to burn from trying not to cry. I could not believe what I was seeing.”

‘We never should have walked away from that night, but we did. I called my mom in tears. She booked me the next flight home.’: Capitol Hill massacre survivor recalls narrowly missing notorious mass shooting, ‘We woke up to see our friends faces on the news’

“Kyle Aaron Huff was at the rave. This was the same after party that Luke and I would have been at. All I wanted was to stay with Luke, but I knew I needed my mom more. He took me to the airport, we said our goodbyes, and I left. I looked back and saw him looking back at me, and I almost stopped. But I knew I had to keep going. In a span of 2 years, I lost the man I thought I’d marry, and the man who was perfect for me.”