“When I met my husband, the most stable man I’d ever encountered, I immediately said ‘I do.’ But we hadn’t even made it to year 7 of marriage yet, and I was itchy. Here’s why. Prior to this dream vacation, I woke up to my nightmare.”
‘My husband and I took a trip. It was our first vacation together in 2 years. Long before his heart, and our world, stopped.’
‘Your future husband is 2 years old. Will he tell me, ‘Mom, she’s the one!’? It’s hard to believe my place as his mother will be eclipsed by your place as his wife.’
“I will recognize my son’s loyalty is first to you. I will refrain from gossiping about you to family members. I will not harbor a grudge if you tell me, ‘I’m sorry, but we just can’t make that work right now.'”
‘We’re broke. We’re $100 thousand in debt.’ He sent it to an online ‘camgirl.’ He is a porn addict, and has been since before he met me. I sat stunned, staring at him.’
“‘I lent a friend money. It’s gone. We’re not getting it back,’ he said. I was frozen. ‘How much money?’ My heart was racing. ‘Five thousand dollars?’ ‘Higher,’ he said between sobs. ‘TEN thousand? Twenty five? Fifty?’ I started to feel ill. It turns out, my husband hadn’t lent the money to a friend at all.”
‘Your dad is going to die. This is a gut-wrencher. You will adopt a child. He will be your brother – the 4th child your dad has with his new wife.’
“Your dad’s wife will die unexpectedly of a drug overdose, followed by your dad to cancer just days later. Before your dad dies, he will sign over custody to you. You will fight tooth and nail through the courts for this child. This is your rock bottom.”
‘My girlfriend and I were scuba diving. There was an accident. I went too deep for too long. She held her breath, and stopped breathing shortly after. She was declared dead.’
“She came to introduce herself, but I was avoiding any contact. The moment my eye caught a glimpse of her though, I knew she would be trouble for me. She was so elegant, but I wanted nothing to do with women. I was rebuilding myself after a life changing accident.”
‘My husband’s heart may have stopped beating, but after he flat-lined, he was revived. ‘How do I cope?,’ I get asked a lot. It really stumped me.’
“My husband has an infamous (and rather annoying) saying he likes to toss around, ‘It could always be worse.’ This is usually met with an exaggerated eyeroll from me, because my realist personality believes the opposite. ‘It could always be better.'”
‘You have cancer? Lemon water will cure you. You have cancer? Just think positive, only negative people die from cancer.’
“A loved one recently said, out of the blue, ’Christa, for insomnia, limit your screen time before bed, get exercise, and eat well.’ I looked at him, with one cocked eyebrow and said, ‘Yes, I’ve been doing those things.’ Thanks Captain Obvious.”
‘This elderly man needed pain meds for his wife. The employee simply said, ‘It’s in aisle 6.’ He struggled to navigate the supermarket. I left all my groceries and took him there.’
“Today, I watched an elderly man who had obviously fallen, with a huge scrape and blood on his leg. He walked past people in the cafe, while he slowly made his way to his car. Not one person stopped. Or looked. Or acknowledged him.”
‘This chip clip saved my life tonight. I had a migraine start almost 12 hours ago and it was at an unbearable limit.’
“I had exhausted all of my drugs and tricks. I glanced at the counter and saw this chip clip. Within one minute I had some relief.”
‘For a long-time people have said, ‘Your wife is very lucky to have you’ or ‘I hope I find a man who treats me like that.’
“Truth be told, it really irks me.”