“My breakup was fresh. I had 2 weeks to shove all my belongings into trash bags. I noticed some whispering, glances my way. They finished off with a hurried cheers. ‘Lisa! Do you have any funny dating stories?!’ The exchange was, frankly, humiliating. I felt like I was deficient in hitting life’s expected mile markers: Marriage. Children. More children. As innocent as conversation can be, it hurts.”
‘Here’s to being 30 and married!’ Everyone lifted their glasses in unison. I drove home in tears, 33 and single.’: Woman faces ‘stigma’ for being ‘unmarried and childless’
‘Can you please stop talking about it? Why do you keep talking about it?’ She slammed her cup of milk down.’: Foster mom’s emotional realization that ‘goodbye is coming’
“I was informed today that goodbye is coming. None of us are ready. ‘It is happening for real and it is happening soon.’ I pulled out the calendar. Their eyes got wide as they realized what I was saying. We need more time.”
‘My son tried out for the basketball team. I had a knot in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t handle breaking the news.’ Mom explains importance of letting kids ‘fall flat on their faces’
“At bedtime, I lay in the lower bunk with my son. ‘Are you disappointed?’ I couldn’t watch.”
‘I walked out of the auditorium, straight to the bathroom, and lost my baby.’: Woman has miscarriage as she walks across graduation stage, gets surprise from brother in heaven 1 year later
“The doctors couldn’t pinpoint exactly when my miscarriage would happen, so we decided I would still walk the stage. As I sat in my seat while the president talked to the crowd, everything started happening. My body finally let go.”
‘Today was hard. I have a backpack leash for my son. He is adopted, was born drug addicted.’: Mom shamed with ‘snide comments, nasty looks’ for having son on leash
“I’m crying and clouded in shame and embarrassment. The looks and side eye I got from no less than 5 ‘Karen’s’ made me grab my items and leave. I’m glad your little Lucy is perfect and never has meltdowns. I don’t know why women feel the need to judge and mom shame.”
‘I just want to stand by dad,’ I told her. This feeling came over me. For a second, I thought it was a joke’: Daughter’s eerie intuition about dad’s untimely death
“We got settled into our seats. I was on one end, my dad on the other. I felt this feeling come over me. I got up, went and stood by my dad. My mom asked me what I was doing. Minutes later, I see his cell phone drop from his hand. His head goes back, and his body is shaking.”
‘Why am I doing this?’ I couldn’t run at the park or playground. I hid my pain from my parents for years. When I spoke to them, they were shocked.’: Man surprises parents with life-changing decision
“I was nervous but excited. I didn’t want to say no to a challenge. I was determined to train for the marathon, even though I’m convinced the universe was trying to stop me. Even if I needed to walk or crawl, I was crossing that line!”
Mother of 6 admits new moms are ‘intimidating as heck’ and don’t want to welcome ‘new blood’: ‘Meeting mom friends is worse than dating. There, I said it!’
“When we first moved here, we knew no one. I knew one of the best ways to meet moms is to throw my kids into activities and hope I clicked with another mom. But friend circles were already formed. It feels like a hard ‘no’ when you’re trying to get on the inside.”
‘I’m done.’ His one-word response was, ‘Finally.’ Receipts for motels showed up on MY credit card. It was the beginning of me.’: Woman re-discovers herself after divorce
“Receipts for bars, motels showed up on MY credit card. When I picked him up from the airport, he was too busy texting her to talk to me. I’d been led through multiple layers of intoxication. I drained my energy and my bank account trying to work things out. I was deathly scared I would be alone forever.”
‘233 Bossler Street. I’ve written that address hundreds of times. I’ll never write that address again.’ Woman reminisces on unexpected ‘last time’ she’d ever visit her grandparents’ home
“I never made it back because life got busy. I always thought there would be another time. There won’t be. Now, it’s someone else’s home, with someone else’s family.”
‘He forced me to the gym because he didn’t want me to ‘get fat.’ I assumed it was normal.’: Survivor’s eye-opening recount of abusive relationship
“I was sure I could change him. He told me how sorry he was. It would never happen again. In the fetal position on the ground, looking up at him, I remember thinking, ‘This is it. This is how I die.’ The police came to my beautiful villa in a fancy part of town. ‘I’m so embarrassed,’ I told the officer. His response? ‘We’re called to this neighborhood more than any other.’”
‘Collapsed? Was this a joke? Who was this man? Then I asked the worst question. ‘Is he breathing?’: Wife’s recalls ‘nagging feeling’ her ‘young, healthy’ husband had before his untimely death
“How does a healthy 31-year-old man who had taken his 2-year-old on a bike ride the night before suddenly collapse 18 hours later? I was asked questions like, ‘How often did David faint?’ or ‘Did his lips ever turn blue?’ Zero. Never. None of that ever happened. But he still had a bad feeling.”
‘Thank you for making me a momma, if even for 15 short months. One day, I will hold you in Heaven.’ Mom recounts harrowing birth experience with daughter, only to lose her months later
“As I studied her face, I thought, ‘Yes, it’s you! I know you!’ It felt like we had been reunited. Everything about her was so familiar. 24 hours of labor was completely worth this bright ray of sunshine that had entered my life. She passed away just 15 months later.”
‘She starts to gag. She is extremely pale with blue lips. Her pupils got really big.’ Little girl collapses while sister curls her hair due to bizarre Hair-Grooming Syncope
“Brushing, curling, braiding, or drying can cause nerve stimulation on the scalp and cause some children to have seizure like symptoms. Apparently very rare but so scary to see it happen!”
‘The kid never leaves home without his purse. He spends his money on makeup, and loves all things pink and sparkly.’: Mom supports her 10-year-old non-binary son and ‘all his fabulousness’
“By the time my son reached Pre-K, there was no denying he was truly one fabulous little guy. People have asked me for years if Sam is gay or transgender. My response? ‘Sam is a child, and if I have anything to do with it, he’ll be a happy one.’”
‘His leg was rapidly turning black. ‘Your son is the sickest kid in this hospital. We don’t expect him to make it.’: Mom shocked by life-threatening necrotizing fascitis after being told it was a ‘regular bug’
“He started complaining that his legs hurt and didn’t want to walk anywhere. The doctor said to give him Gatorade and Tylenol. His right leg started swelling up. ‘I don’t want to freak you out, but you need to take him back to the doctor.’ That ended up being the most important advice I have ever received.”
‘This soldier, who died in Afghanistan, was being flown home on our flight. I have never cried so much for someone I didn’t know.’: Man recalls ’emotional’ flight, airline captain’s act of kindness
“I sat down in my seat, and 2 minutes later, boarding was ceased by the captain to observe a moment of silence. I thought, ‘Now what?'”
‘My wife cut her wrists. I’m not ashamed, I’m not embarrassed. This is my wife, and she is dealing with pain.’: Husband unapologetically tells his boss of his wife’s trauma, struggles
“I was a child who was told to shut up when I cried. I learned to suppress deep inside. And it erupted like a volcano. I’m in a hospital bed because what I did was a cry for help.”
‘My son told me he got his girlfriend pregnant and they’re keeping the baby. He is 17, she is 16.’: Dad shows son just how ‘easy’ parenting is with clever simulation
“According to him, having a child is ‘really not that hard’. We tried to persuade him to look at other options, but he immediately shuts down any talk of the situation. So, instead, I have decided to teach him that kids are more difficult than he thinks.”
‘I was swimsuit shamed by my 5-year-old. At the pool, my daughter asked me when I was going to take my ‘dress’ off.’: Mom embarrassed by daughter for covering ‘thighs, fat, flab’
“I didn’t have it in me to tell her this was my swimsuit.”
‘It’s really bad this time,’ she whispered. ‘My sister kicked me out. The cops are involved. I’m so scared.’: Paralyzed husband and his wife adopt 19-year-old, only 6 years younger than them
“‘Emily?’ The sniffling voice on the other line was hoarse from sobbing. I sighed. A tearful call in the middle of the night could only mean one thing. She hesitated. ‘Will you and Chris be my foster parents?’ I was caught off guard. We were 23 and 24 at the time, and newly engaged.”
‘Her hair loss isn’t from stress.’ The pleasant chit-chat stopped. ‘There’s no cure for this.’: Little girl diagnosed with Alopecia starts head scarf company to ‘help all of the bald kids’
“We noticed a handful of brown curls on Rosie’s pillow. ‘Maybe she’s stressed about the new baby?’ The next morning, even more curls. ‘Maybe she’s allergic to her shampoo?’ Monday came and the last of her hair fell out. Our pediatrician assured us it was stress. It wasn’t. Our hope that this would be a temporary condition, even a funny story someday, slowly faded. Instead, we had to get used to the unkind stares and finger-pointing.”
‘Why are you still nursing her? Isn’t she too OLD for that?’ Mom shamed for breastfeeding 1-year-old daughter
“People are constantly telling you how you should feed your kids. When does it all stop? I felt the need to please everyone, all the time. I became a pleaser. For the fear of letting anyone down, I did whatever I could to make everyone happy. Meanwhile, I was losing myself.”
‘I came home around 2 a.m. Something wasn’t right. In a matter of minutes, my carpet was on fire.’: Brave woman recounts how she escaped domestic abuse
“I got pregnant and things hit the fan. He started disappearing. For DAYS. My tires were slashed. My window was smashed. The police rolled their eyes. When my neighbor saw me, she grabbed me and pulled me into her house. I was met with, ‘But you are so strong. You just don’t seem like the type.’”
‘Me at 19: ‘I’m pregnant.’ Him: ‘Get an abortion!,’ he exclaimed. My life was over. ‘Why would you do this to me?’ I felt a wave of fog fall over me.’
“I was working 80 hours a week. All the while, my baby daddy was partying and sleeping with other girls. I remember crying and feeling so close to death. Yet, this life was forming inside of me. I wanted to give my unborn child a chance.”