Sad
😪
‘A nurse grabbed my hand. ‘I’m right here,’ she squeezed tightly and said. I remember looking around the room to find some sense of peace.’
“When they discovered my diagnosis, my hospital room erupted into chaos as nurses rushed in. I remember being filled with fear as they wheeled me away. But when the world seemed so dark, our best friends would step in and help bring us back into the light.”
‘I was staring at a naked picture of myself on my father’s computer. ‘What the heck?,’ I said out loud, the last words before rage overtook my body.’
“I walked into the living room where they both sat. ‘I love you. I don’t blame you. I am here to protect you,’ I told my mother. My father looked me dead in the eyes. He was sitting on the couch with his computer screen opened before him. He stared at me blankly. ‘What do I need to show her?’”
‘My fingers were numb, but I blamed the cold weather. I had feelings of rug burn across my legs. ‘Mommy, my chest feels funny.’ Those were the last words she would hear me say.’
“My mom held me and then boom! I was crying ‘mom’ as I hit the floor. I took her phone and typed, ‘Pull the plug.’ She cried and cried, and I remember her saying, ‘I’m not gonna let you die.’”
‘My kid’s school had a school lockdown today. I saw this on her arm. She says, ‘in case the bad guy got to us and I got killed, you and daddy would know that I love you, and she started to cry.’
“I cried as I watched her innocence get stolen away. To know that my 7-year-old was put in a position to think that thought is absolutely gut wrenching and it’s killing me inside.”
‘I am SICKENED this is on a lunch box. ‘Why does my 5-year-old call herself ‘fat?’ ‘Why does my middle schooler stand in the mirror and find her flaws?’ We scratch our heads when we see little girls struggle with body image.’
“See this? This is a picture I snapped today of a little girl’s lunchbox I saw for sale. THIS. This is the reason why. ‘You’re overreacting!,’ you might say. No.”
‘It’s the heart! Something is wrong with our baby’s heart’ The kicking and screaming slowly stopped and he was limp and asleep.
“We hugged and kissed and told SJ how much we love him. He was emotional this time. He cried and cried saying no more pokies mommy. I want to go home. With each tear that fell from his eyes my heart was crushed a little more.”
‘The government thought I was a superhuman. My parents met in a cult called ‘New Testament Church’ in the 1980s. You can see things ranging from demons, to Big Bird, to Ryan Reynolds.’
“I had a forty-percent chance of getting it, but always knew I would. Although I tried to avoid it, it was ultimately inevitable.”
‘She must have known she was pregnant.’ I was four months pregnant and I had no idea.
“I hadn’t known I was pregnant, but I have photos of Pippit hugging me like this as I slept while I was pregnant with Liam. I was emotional, exhausted and couldn’t help but fall asleep when I least expected to. I had been 4 months pregnant, and I had no idea. It was a shock. I was in disbelief.”
‘She and her brother are both adopted, so we couldn’t even do a half match! That call was devastating. How could we come this far and not have any matches?! We felt hopeless.’
“We searched for weeks, and came up empty handed. I remember so vividly sitting in the waiting room thinking this is just a bad dream and we would wake up!”
‘The doctor is in his Battle Dress Uniform and is straddling me on the exam table. The surgeon told me, ‘you have the best cancer.’ I would learn later how wrong he was.’
“We lived on a military base where my husband was assigned as an active duty Marine. On a day which had started just like every other day of my life, my life changed forever.”
