“In the middle of our conversation, a woman walked up and stood before us. She had tears in her eyes. She simply asked for a favor. ‘We have to leave, and I was wondering if you guys could launch ours for us.’ She didn’t say why she chose us.”
‘I quickly read it, a tribute to ‘Trenton.’ He was 21 when he died, just a week ago. I instinctively asked her what happened. He had drowned. My heart broke for this woman.’
‘Mom, can I go to his wake? I want to say thank you to him for his kindness. He made me feel like I belong.’
“‘Mom, Ryan was not at school again today,’ he said to me. ‘Why is Ryan not coming to afterschool activities?’ I explained he was fighting cancer, and was sometimes in the hospital for treatment. He spent so much time in the hospital, he didn’t get to be a kid. I told my son, ‘Do something about it.'”
‘I was 13 hours away with $1.32 in my account. Tears in my eyes, I gently opened the door. There was a look of shock on her face. ‘How did you get here?!’
“I wrote, ‘My mom is dying in hospice care and I feel guilty every day I’m not there sitting by her side.’ I awoke to something so unexpected. ‘Alex! Oh my god, Alex!’”
‘We got pregnant before marriage. I was told, ‘Your marriage is going to fail.’ I felt hopeless. I told my husband, ‘I just can’t continue anymore.’
“I felt like I was not giving my children the life they should have. In that moment, I felt trapped. So, my husband went into our bedroom and found the loose change that he had been collecting for a few years.”
‘I was taken in a police car. Alone, I sat in a room overnight. An old friend and unexpected flame circled back into my life. I hesitated to connect with him because of my illness. I wasn’t myself.’
“The next morning, though I was states away, he was waiting in visitation for me in the hospital. I saw the pain in his eyes. When it would have been easy to notice only the illness, he saw me. Even in the darkness, he had hope.”
‘I was almost a school shooter. I had 2 locations mapped out. The bullying became unbearable. But 2 things stopped me, and altered the course of my life.’
“Mike took me in that night, letting me sleep in his room against his parents’ wishes, sneaking me leftovers from dinner. He helped me wash my clothes and let me take a shower. I hadn’t shared my feelings with anyone, but someone was watching.”
‘An older man said to my sister, ‘Let me get a taste of that.’ He was sticking his tongue out and wiggling it. She instantly turned red. She was 12. He laughed and I did, too. I don’t know why, but I did.’
“This is what it REALLY means to be a man. It’s kissing my wife’s stomach and telling her she’s beautiful, even with her c-section scar and stretch marks. It’s telling my daughter ‘Honey, OWN that Jersey’ when she comes home from school crying after a boy told her to take it off because girls ‘don’t play’ sports.”
‘You okay, buddy?’ He looked into my soul with those big blue teary eyes and started crying on my shoulder. He was defeated. ‘What’s the purpose of life?’ It’s a difficult question.’
“The park was a packed with kids. Without hesitation, I see him walk up to a crowd of 7 and 8-year-olds. ‘Hi, what’s your name?,’ Jude asks. The girls ran off to play together. Leaving Jude behind, confused. After a half hour of rejection, his head was down. He was defeated.”
Boy grows hair to donate to kids in need: ‘What are you doing in the boy’s bathroom? You look like a GIRL!’ One parent asked, ‘Is that a boy? That is such irresponsible parenting!’ His hair was long and angelic. I never understood.’
“No matter what he wore, he was mistaken as a girl by strangers. Even in his Spider Man costume, someone said, ‘Oh she’s so cute!’ I got used to correcting people. One day, I was called into the principal’s office.”
‘My dad told us, ‘Make someone’s day better.’ I watched him take his last breath. ‘Just because he couldn’t receive my kidney, doesn’t mean somebody else shouldn’t.’ This is for you, dad.’
“I was nervous and excited the morning of the surgery. This was finally happening! We could feel my dad’s presence in the room. We each donated to a stranger, for him.”
