Touching
🤧
‘Really, Daddy? Are you really going to let them CUT MY ARM OFF?’ My son’s face fell. A silent tear trickled down his cheek.’
“He looked in horror at me and his daddy. My husband held my son as he became frantic. It hurts to know my child worried so much, and never brought it to me.”
‘Take a pregnancy test, crazy!,’ my sister said. My husband was out of town. He thought I was pulling a prank. We were SHOCKED. I was mind blown to see that positive! I WAS PREGNANT!’
“Jared and I met in the Army. For me, it was love at first sight. We started trying to have children right after we got married. At first, it was just fun. Then I started to get sick.”
‘My mom rushed in shouting, ‘Get up! Get up! I need you to keep your dad from getting out of bed.’ I sprinted to their room. ‘911? This must be serious! My mom is running, she never runs!’
“My dad was a zombie. He groaned this horrendous noise. As tears rushed down my cheeks, I ran over. There was a surprise guest waiting to pick me up. ‘They are not sure your mom is going to make it,’ he said. ‘But everyone said it wouldn’t be like my dad!,’ was all I kept repeating.”
‘I was at the subway station. My boyfriend heard a loud crash. Things went black. I awoke to an EMT standing over me. ‘Do you know someone who has it?’ I nodded.’
“Instead of contacting my mom, I decided to wait. ‘You have 24 hours to cry about the situation.’ All I could think was, ‘WHY?’ I sat in disbelief. Something inside me felt like I would be doing everyone a favor.”
‘I gave birth to my son while high on methamphetamine. I wish I could tell you I sobered up, but I did not. We were joined at the hip. We were both addicts, but wanted to be sober.’
“I was so afraid. I just knew CPS was going to take him, but a miracle happened. He was born completely clean. No drugs in his system. He was perfectly healthy. Neal and I cried and cried. We went home that following Monday and swore we would stay sober.”
‘You are a 13-year-old girl with a sick dad, you must just want attention.’ I was heartbroken, betrayed by my best friends. There were YEARS of doctors saying, ‘We don’t have an answer why she’s in pain.’
“Can you imagine being 15 with a cane in high school? I was called ‘the blue cripple’ because my cane was aqua blue. My Spanish teacher saw my cane for the first time and yelled, ‘YOU HAVE A WALKING STICK? OH MY GOD!’”
‘I made my way to the sports aisle and hurried to lift my top. ‘How dare you expose yourself to my husband like that,’ a woman snarled. ‘You should be ashamed of yourself!’
“One mom said, ‘Do you think she knows who the father is? I mean, look at how nonchalantly she is walking about with her breast out. That says a lot about her morals.’ Mortified, I left the store, leaving everything I had in the cart. I remember thinking, ‘Did I do something wrong?’”
‘If you’re not busy on Monday, you can come see me in the hospital?’ We left our info with this stranger, our waiter. He showed up for 6 hours, talking and calming us down.’
“He stood in that ICU waiting for Tommy to open his eyes so he could fulfill his promise to an 8-year-old boy he did not know. THANK YOU IS NOT ENOUGH.”
‘I still remember the text I sent my husband. ‘Do you want TWO babies?’ Boy, girl, black, biracial, a year apart, biologically shared one parent. My voice trailed off.’
“When I saw my son-to-be’s date of birth, I choked back tears. To understand why, I need to rewind. My husband was feeling run down. It was sudden and pronounced fatigue, odd for an avid cyclist. At 32 years old, he was fit. We both shrugged it off. I promised our kids we wouldn’t be gone long.”
‘Mommy am I going to get so sick that I die?’ These words tumbled from his lips, my heart broke into a million pieces. All I could do was hold him close as tears ran down my face.’
“I spent many a night convincing myself the diagnosis was wrong. I mean doctors mess up test results all the time, right? At first the guilt of knowing we passed on the gene for this condition was all-consuming. Even though we had no idea, we still blamed ourselves.”
