“Looking at her reflection she is forced to blink to see clearly. Her gray hair is set in curlers. She is thinking about all the friends and family she has outlived. She considers bending down to fix her knee-high stocking, but instead, sighs deeply.
‘She is 5, her curls draped around her cheeks. As she straightens her crown, she finds the reflection of her gray hair and sad eyes staring back at her. She is dressing for her fourth funeral this year.’
‘This time last year, I wrote a suicide note. I hated myself and believed I was better off dead than being ‘gay.’’
“I remember laying in my bed, crying, and asking God why He would make me if He was going to send me to Hell.”
‘I had a panic attack before I posted it. My body has fat, it has rolls, it’s got stretch marks from before my pregnancy. But that doesn’t make it any less postpartum.’
“The first few weeks of motherhood felt very lonely. I felt so uncomfortable in my body and was searching for someone, anyone, to relate to. I saw other moms celebrating their postpartum bodies, but I could never find another plus size mother who was celebrated in the same way.”
‘He didn’t have any money, just school loans. He was younger than I was. Almost 4 years to be exact. My engagement ring was small. My proposal was simple.’
“That’s how I knew he was the one: I didn’t care.”
Dear Society: Please Stop Judging How Women Use Social Media
“If she uses a Snapchat filter every time she takes a picture because it makes her feel pretty, let her do it. If she takes gym selfies to track her progress every day, let her do it. If she poses the same way in every picture because she likes that angle of her body the best, let her do it.”
‘He woke with a small cough. Within hours, he had trouble breathing. A few hours after that, he took his last breath.’: Woman’s husband who ‘never got sick’ passes suddenly from Bone Marrow Failure months before birth of son
“My husband, Jonas, began to look pale. We both chalked it up to jet lag and went on with the week. We had two small children and I was 14 weeks pregnant with our third, so being tired wasn’t out of the norm. Later that week, even picking up the kids’ toys would make him dizzy. Another week went by, all the while he continued to ride his bicycle over 20 miles a day. He came home that night after riding and had almost passed out while riding. ‘Enough is enough.’ I figured it couldn’t hurt to go to the doctor.”
‘I had a meltdown in a Target fitting room. A thought entered my mind: I hate my body.’
“I stood and stared at myself half-naked. I missed pre-pregnancy me. I missed how my jeans used to fit. How I didn’t have to wear Spanx when I wore something fitted. I missed the way my boobs looked in a bra that actually fit me. I missed it all.”
My dad had written ‘Best After April 2016’: After 3 miscarriages, woman credits beer, baseball and fate for working in ‘mysterious ways’
“During my dad’s visit, he reminded me of a story that helped me to accept everything happens for a reason. I️ don’t think it was a coincidence I received the email on my daughter’s second birthday, September 6th. But I’ll let you decide.”
My Healthy Teen Daughter Was Body Shamed By A Nurse, And We Need To Talk About It
“Riley’s response when we left was, ‘Mom, this is why kids have anorexia or feel like they want to hurt themselves.’ She is exactly right!”
‘I was a young father, 21, trying to figure it out as a single dad. There weren’t baby changing tables in men’s restrooms. Changing diapers SUCKED in public.’
“Fast forward to July 2018. My daughter is now 16. I saw a story about a dad who was changing his daughter on a dirty tile floor in a public restroom. I was taken right back to 2002. I thought YES! That was the worst! I have done that many times!”
‘I remember picking it up. I remember hitting my arm with the sharp edge repeatedly until I saw scratches, and then blood. I remember feeling better.’
“These scars are my war marks of fighting to LIVE.”
The dementia is taking her away. He leans in to kiss her. Ever so quietly I hear her say, ‘I love you,’ before staring into a place only she can see.
“‘Is she OK? Who is watching her?’ Who could possibly love her like he does, to know what being apart is doing to his heart? He doesn’t understand why no one will listen. Why no one realizes how much she needs him, and more importantly, how much he needs her.”
‘When I became a father I felt like a fumbling mortal, a diaper-changing imposter. I grew up to learn my dad had faults, too. Like many men of his generation, he didn’t know how to handle his emotions.’
“I saw my dad on the same level as Batman or Superman. He was so strong. It seemed like he could do anything. He could pick up both of my sisters and me at one time, tickle us, and throw us around like a rag dolls. He gave the best hugs.”
Why I’m Thankful I See My Son At His Worst
“You don’t have to pretend with me. I am your safe haven.”
‘Are you upset with me? Do you blame me? Do you trust me with the triplets?’ Mom reveals ‘the hardest conversation’ she ever had in 10 years of marriage
“I had to be honest with my husband so he could help me through the guilt and shame that came with almost losing our baby girl.”
I Have A Large Family, And People Say The Strangest Things Because Of It
“I know how crazy my life looks, and when you approach with the sheer goal to reiterate that fact, it not only puts a damper on my day, but it teaches my kids that having a large family is ‘wrong.'”
‘At the performance, my baby boy blew out his diaper. I scooped him up, rushing to the bathroom. This was at our fancy playhouse, which apparently meant no changing table.’
“I set him down as I cleared away the fancy bowl of potpourri that was not helping this situation. I was about 25 wipes into the situation when, to make the mess worse, he starts projectile vomiting while I am changing him.”
‘I want my life back. I want my husband back. I want my kids to feel whole again. I want it back. All of it.’
“At the time, after his diagnosis, I thought his love for me, and my love for him did not change. Looking back, I can see now that it did. For the first time in our relationship, we were scared at the same time.”
‘The days I spent as an intern in the White House seemed far behind me. After all, I was an addict. A junkie. And a gay man, too.’
“Today, more than 20 people I know and love have been killed by overdoses. Those people’s moms and dads didn’t stop believing in them, ever. But that didn’t save their lives.”
‘Here’s where my 12-year-old son, Noah, should have stood this morning for his obligatory back-to-school picture.’: Bereaved mom says ‘it’s okay to acknowledge both the beauty and the ache’
“Today he should have started 7th grade. Instead he never will.”
‘There’s no way you’re sick. You’re the picture of health,’ my husband said. I went 36 years feeling like I was dying, but doctors couldn’t give me answers.’ Woman diagnosed with POTS after being told she ‘just needs vitamins’
“The cardiologist asked me to take a seat. ‘We have good news, then some complicated news.’ I’d never been so nervous. I sat there, waiting to hear the worst, but I was relieved when I heard the words, ‘You have a healthy heart.’ I took a breath and released with ease. The next words to come changed my life forever. The cardiologist looked at me and said, ‘You were born with a rare condition called POTS.’”
‘They said $5 for any dog that’s a foot or longer. I immediately thought of Subway’s $5 foot long! I decided to text my mom to ask for ‘permission.’
“She never specified what kind of foot long…”
‘It was obvious her heart behind this was ENORMOUS and pure’: Special education teacher’s homemade traveling coffee cart allows her students to ‘practice social skills, work through their shyness’
“This allows her students to walk around to the teachers and staff in the school, take their orders and then deliver their coffee to them. They even learning how to run a simple business by calculating their expenses and profits.”
‘My tiny Autism warrior has one of the best teachers. Not joking- we hit the jackpot. I don’t take it for granted for a second.’
“But this isn’t about teachers. It’s about the paraprofessionals. The aides. The helpers. The snugglers and errand runners. The quiet encouragers. The hallway monitors. This is for the backbone of every classroom across America. For all the spines with soft spots who love our children when we can’t.”
‘This is what my daughter wore to her first day of 1st grade. Three pairs of different colored socks, all inside-out, stuffed into her ‘fancy’ shoes. And oh, let’s not forget the bright pink BATHING SUIT.’
“Did they think I was a bad mom for letting my child walk around like that? That I was lazy or over-indulgent?”