“If you’ve ever dropped your kids off at Sunday School and thought, ‘I wonder if they’d know if we went and got brunch instead.'”
By LJ Herman -
‘If you joined the gym for the childcare. If crumbs fall out of your bra when you take it off. If the last thing you read all the way through was reviews on a new sippy cup.’
By LJ Herman -
‘Right after my grandmother died, I found my mom in her bedroom writing down her thoughts. Through her tears she said: ‘You can read this when I’m done.’’
“I remember all the times I left my home on May Avenue, watching momma wave to me as I pulled away. I know how important that last wave is.”
By LJ Herman -
‘To some, Maddie was just a junkie — when they saw her addiction, they stopped seeing her. And what a loss for them.’
“Though we would have paid any ransom to have her back, any price in the world, this disease would not let her go until she was gone.”
By LJ Herman -
‘I asked her how I was going to explain to everyone that I had lied, and that she never really died. I didn’t care because she was here again with me, and that’s all that really mattered.’
“It was as if she was never really gone. As if somehow this had all been a nightmare.”
By LJ Herman -
‘My mom was due for her annual mammogram, but her doctor reassured her it wasn’t really necessary. She was a low risk patient. But my mom thought, ‘I might as well.’’
“That split-second decision and that appointment Halloween day would soon change the course of our lives forever.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘I was 14 when I gave birth. It’s not every day you’re sitting in a waiting room with a 14-year-old mom, with her baby’s oxygen tank on her back.’
“I was a cheerleader, swimmer and honor roll student who attended church every week. On the outside I looked like your average kid.”
By Eliza Murphy -
‘I felt something hit me from behind, specifically the right side of my butt. A group of guys were walking behind me. They snickered. I heard someone say, ‘Do it again.”
“I was wearing a long, velvet skirt – I could feel it all – and the heat of his hand.”
By LJ Herman -
‘People joke about having an out-of-body experience, but it truly was.’ Brothers surprise bride with father-daughter dance from dad in heaven to Michael Bolton song, he responds
“My name is Dave West and I’m Kaley’s dad, and I love her very much. 1,800 times worth,” the voice of their late father can be heard at the beginning of the song.
By Eliza Murphy -
She said, ‘NO. You’re going to go sit down and enjoy your dinner, and I will be there to sit with her!’
“I went to find our waitress to ask if she could please bring my food out in a To-go box because we were going out to sit in the car…”
By LJ Herman -
‘She grabbed the two babies, was crawling, saying she couldn’t breathe.’ Heroic mom dies shielding 10-month-old daughter from gunfire
“My granddaughter, thank God she’s still here. As my daughter tried to protect the kids, she lost her life. We consider her a hero.”
By LJ Herman -
