“She finally went into rehab. Not long after, she disappeared. One day, I had a guest. ‘Maya!’ I was excited to see her. She was super off and shaky. She didn’t even come into the house, just stood at the door. Immediately my heart sunk. I knew what was happening. I told her I loved her. ‘Please call me when you’re better.’”
‘My best friend let me in on a secret. She was receiving methadone treatments for a heroin addiction. ‘What?’ I was so young and naïve.’: Woman finally breaks cycle of toxic relationships to trust her ‘intuition’
‘Erin, you look great! I can see SUCH a difference in your face.’ I appreciate the compliments, but deep down I’m hurt. People were judging my body before I made adjustments.’ Woman’s pain diagnosed nearly 2 decades after childhood car accident
“My weight went up and down. I refused to go into dressing rooms, refused to get clothes. When I got pregnant, I couldn’t help but worry about how much more ‘fat’ I was going to get. If you’re going to call me overweight, at least do it to my face so I can tell you what the HECK my temple has been through this last decade.”
‘It is never enough. You can see the loneliness in his eyes when he hugs us goodbye.’: Daughter’s ‘gut wrenching’ nightmare makes her realize just how lonely her elderly father is after wife’s death to dementia
“I had a nightmare. I was being taken to a home I didn’t recognize and into a room I had never been in before. I was in a wheelchair. My mom is telling me it will be OK. She is holding my hand, and I am crying. I tell her I want to go home, but she is telling me I am home. My heart aches for dad on the other side of the door, knowing he will lie there, waiting, for the next visit.”
‘I should’ve left my appointment, picked an outfit for a little boy or girl at the store, and surprised my husband. Instead, I found out our baby no longer had a heartbeat.’ Woman details shattering moment son ‘went to heaven’
“The nurse handed me a box of tissues. I remember pleading with my baby to be okay, my hand on my womb, tears running down. Immediately upon standing, I felt crazy amounts of blood trickling down my leg. I kept thinking that had to be everything, but I felt more released. A little boy. All ten fingers. All ten toes.”
‘You kids will be ok. I’ll be watching over you always.’ She promised to love our angel babies in heaven.’: After child loss, losing loved ones to cancer, woman gets rainbow baby only to be rushed into ‘emergency surgery’
“I felt so complete once my baby was in my arms, but unexpected tragedy struck again. This time, to me. After birth I was experiencing extreme back and chest pain. I thought it was just from breastfeeding and kept dismissing it. My gallbladder went haywire postpartum. My mom had to raise our miracle baby while I was fighting for my life. I couldn’t believe this was happening.”
‘Why do we lie and utter the words ‘I’m fine’ to our friends? I’m tired of hiding, and I think you are, too.’ Mom admits motherhood has served her ‘a big slice of humble pie’
“Today, I lost it. Finito. Buh-bye. GONE. I could feel my nerves fraying at the seams and in true me fashion, I cried. This is what no one tells you about. The hard stuff. If a friend shares her truth and says she’s in a funk, don’t tell her your life is sunshine and rainbows. Tell her you’re in the freaking arena with her.”
‘I saw a 3-year-old girl step onto a Las Vegas subway ALONE, and the doors were closing. I met eyes with a mom. Then, the subway bolted off.’: Woman recounts how ‘every mother’s nightmare’ of losing a child became reality
“The mom was gathering an unholy ton of luggage, and had turned away for just a moment. She looked up with absolute horror. People were suddenly shoulder to shoulder, crammed like sardines. I bent down to a sweet, terrified girl. Quiet tears fell before the shaking of her small sobs could be heard. There was no police. No security guard. No one, but her.”
‘There’s some students you never forget. Your daughter is one of those.’ Mother thanks daughter with autism’s teachers in emotional summer reunion
“When summer began, she bawled every day asking for them. I thought her heart might stop when she saw them; mine sure did. She ran through that shop and jumped into their arms.”
‘Did she want another woman in her life? I waited to meet my stepdaughter for the very first time. My heart pounded as she stepped in the car.’: Woman says there’s ‘nothing natural about a blended family’
“Trying on my wedding dress, I sensed tension with my boyfriend’s daughter. My mind raced, and I pulled her aside. ‘I’m not trying to replace your mom.’ I never expected to start a family like this.”
‘Minutes before this nap, we heard lyrics to a song that stated, ‘love will lie to you.’ He couldn’t deal.’: Adoptive mom calms her concerned son after confusing song lyrics
“He bowed up and said, ‘That’s not true! It’s not true! Love doesn’t lie to us.’ So we talked.”
‘My son died all alone in his apartment. In the blink of an eye, my family changed. It seemed impossible to think I wouldn’t see him, hug him ever again.’ Mom’s 26-year-old son dies due to ‘senseless price of insulin’
“Insulin was $1,300 a month. My son left the pharmacy empty-handed. He lasted only 27 days without insurance. I’d been to my fare share of funerals, but nothing prepares you for the death of your child.”
‘I’m so sorry. He fell into the swimming pool.’ He was found with a blanket he would put over his head, and his little bicycle.’: Mom’s heartbreaking plea to use pool nets because ‘freak accidents happen’
“My car keys had been stolen, and while waiting for assistance, my mom was watching my 2-year-old son at our home. As we loaded our luggage into our car, my phone rang. It was my mom, weeping. My heart sank – I immediately knew Kaeden was harmed.”
‘I have to check your back pocket. I was told you stole a T-shirt from the gift store.’: Angry Orchard employee interrupts marriage proposal, racially profiles them, says couple
“I got engaged today! But we’ll get to that part later. Let me set the stage. On what was supposed to be one of the best days of my life, I was chased out by security who followed us all the way to the parking lot.”
‘No one else will love you besides me.’ It was like looking in the face of the devil.’: Young woman’s unexpected pregnancy gives her courage to leave abusive boyfriend, ‘never look back’
“One day it all changed. I peed on a stick and it said positive. I was pregnant with my son. My maternal instincts kicked in. The next time he beat me, I was done. I may not have loved myself enough to leave, but the love I had for my son was so big, I could not allow someone to hurt him.”
‘I got caught in a snowstorm. My car tipped off a mountain road and landed in a 15-foot ravine. I grabbed my dog, zipped her in my jacket, and scrambled up a hill.’ Car accident triggers woman’s ‘tonic clonic’ seizures
“It took them two days to find my white car in all the fresh snow. Surprisingly, nothing was broken. Once thing’s seemed to be falling into place, that’s when my first seizure happened. I went face down onto the hardwood floor.”
‘You disgust me.’ I felt the barrel of his gun against the back of my head. This is the exact handgun I had purchased for him.’: Woman overcomes abuse, narrowly escapes death to ‘be a survivor’
“At that moment, I had given up. I knew if he took my life, I wouldn’t have to deal with the pain and suffering he had caused me for so long. In the split second that I had come to terms with what was going to happen, the gun fell from his hand and hit the floor. He slammed the door open, and left.”
‘I can’t walk, yet I’ve traveled to 23 countries, 80 cities. My husband carries me. Up stairs, up mountains, across the world.’: Woman paralyzed in scooter accident, husband’s love reminds her ‘anything is possible’
“We were heading home by scooter when we slipped. After I lost movement in my legs, I was afraid no one could ever love me like this…halved. I didn’t love myself. But he’s always remained by my side. You can lose almost everything, you can lose your legs, and maybe even your wheelchair, but nobody can take away your determination.”
‘I never look like this.’: Mom confesses she ‘forgot’ who she was until her own mother sat her down and ‘made her’ get out her makeup
“The truth is, I’ve forgotten how to be her, and as much as I hate that fact, it’s real. Mothers don’t need empty advice. We need others to care for us. It’s the first step.”
‘My husband turned to me and said, ‘I have to poo.’ It’s like his ‘get out of jail free card.’ His way of saying, ‘I’m done here. You finish it.’: Fed up mom finally puts her foot down with husband’s lame excuse
“But today, I simply said ‘NO.'”
‘I have a huge favor to ask. I’m in the ER. I can’t leave my daughter alone, but I really need a coffee.’: Single mom touched by act of kindness during daughter’s open heart surgery
“My baby needed a heart transplant. I’ll never forget the compassion I was showed at my most vulnerable.”
‘My mom told me my dad was ‘gone.’ I fell to my knees. A nurse asked me to be ‘quiet.’: Daughter sells everything, lives nomadic life in search of ‘peace’ after father’s death to terminal cancer
“I woke up to a call from my brother. ‘Dad is really sick. He has cancer.’ Time stood still. ‘What am I supposed to do?’ In less than 2 months, he passed. My lifestyle has brought concern to others. ‘What do you mean you’re selling everything?’ ‘How are you going to live?’ ‘What about your careers?’ I was in the midst of a breakdown.”
‘My pregnancy crushed my stepkids. The mom and dad they’d known were gone, and now we were bringing a baby into their lives.’ Mom feels ‘remorse’ for bringing child into ‘complicated’ home
“I mourned that my daughter couldn’t be welcomed into the world with joyful innocence. She’d be born into a life of sharing Christmases and summer vacations. A life where daddy couldn’t tell mommy she was his first and only wife. I had to bury the dreams of what I THOUGHT motherhood looked like.”
‘If I could change one thing about my husband, it would be how often he puts himself first.’: Wife’s candid admission about marriage challenges, not having enough ‘me time’
“I complain I don’t get enough help around the house. My husband’s gripe, on the other hand, is that I never make the time for me and the things I enjoy, and it’s not fair for me to be mad that he does.”
‘You were conceived in rape.’ She was gasping for air. ‘I don’t know who your father is. I’ve never told anyone this before.’: Adopted woman learns truth about her past, feels guilty for her own abortions
“When I was 21, with two babies of my own, I was in my bedroom with this heaviness on my heart. I needed to know who my birth-father was. My birth-mom was only 14 when she had me, 13 when she was pregnant. I could sense such sadness in her voice. My heart sank. ‘It is not your fault. Thank you for your strength to tell me. I love you.’”
‘My mom died today. Even though she abandoned me 6 years ago, up until this morning, I still had a mom.’: Abused daughter reflects on love for her mother, despite physical, verbal, emotional trauma
“She called and left me a voicemail saying she didn’t want anything to do with me anymore. I cannot count how many times I listened to that voicemail. Those words stung the same each time. She was just waiting for the day I would go crawling back on my knees to her.”