“I had lunch at Sam’s Club with my twins. A little girl with blonde hair ran up and sat next to us. I looked around for the mom. Didn’t see anyone. ‘This is so odd. If the mom doesn’t come over soon, I’ll have to get an employee.’ I’m searching all the women at the food court. Dad finally walks up. ‘Hey, thanks for letting her sit here.’ I smiled. ‘No problem at all!’ When it was time to go, we walked towards the door. She followed us. I got a little uneasy. Is she scared of him? Then he approached us.”
‘I’m so sorry. My wife died in a car accident. She wanted to hang out with you guys.’ He had tears in his eyes as he grabbed his daughter’s hand.’: Mom ‘forever changed’ by chance encounter with stranger, ‘You never know what someone is going through’
‘What if Matthew doesn’t come home this time?’ I watch him struggle to breathe. I gasp for air, screaming as my mother holds my shaking body.’: Sister advocates for brother battling Cystic Fibrosis, ‘I will stand beside him in this fight, forever’
“My tears soak the sleeve of her sweatshirt. A sharp, strong pain runs through my chest. For the past 19 years, I have watched him swallow hundreds of thousands of pills. ‘What if Matthew gets sicker? How much time does he have?’ I finally decided I was tired of watching. Life gave me the greatest gift of all: a brother. I will stand hand-in-hand beside him in this fight.”
‘I screamed, ‘I love you! Please don’t leave me!’ She had changed her tampon regularly. She started seizing and stopped breathing right in front of me.’: Mom loses daughter to Toxic Shock Syndrome, ‘My beautiful girl was a fighter’
“It was my daughter’s 19th birthday. She wasn’t feeling well, but still wanted to go out to dinner. When we got home, my baby was sick to her stomach. She was completely out of it. Something wasn’t right. I hug her saying, ‘It’s okay, the ambulance is coming.’ Then, all of the sudden, she looks at me, takes a deep breathe, and closes her eyes. I held her as she took her last breath. I didn’t want to let go. I prayed God would take me instead.”
‘Please God, give her back! We already knew, she’s gone. I was weak from grief.’: Mom recalls loss of daughter, uses music to keep her memory alive, ‘No matter what I’m singing, I know she’s there, because she is my song’
“It was just me and Alice at the hospital. There was a soft glow from the bathroom, the door barely cracked. She laid on my chest, we were just there together, soaking each other in. Time stood still. She was so feminine, petite. I say, ‘I know whenever I sing, you are there,’ and I truly mean it. It’s as if I am sharing my beautiful, perfect daughter, and that brings me joy. I would find her singing to herself in her bed. I knew we would be connected through music forever.”
‘Be back in the morning, mom.’ He smiled. At 2 a.m. I awoke to police at my door. My beautiful son had been shot multiple times.’: Mom loses son to stranger’s act of violence, ‘I will live more fiercely for him’
“When she finished my transaction at the bank, she said, ‘I want to thank you for your energy and smile today. I wasn’t feeling very happy, but you raised my spirits.’ The tears came back again. It wasn’t me at all, but my beautiful son who had caused it. That night, we ate a meal together and he left to go out with friends. My daughter and I walked him to the door. On June 22, I saw his smiling face for the last time.”
‘We won’t charge you for her. She’ll be FREE!’ I was freaking out. We already had 5 children. We didn’t sign up for this. We’re done, right?!’: Mom of 10 has all-natural birth at age 43, ‘We’ve brought 7 lives into the world, and saved 3. That’s worth it!’
“Let’s just say, passion wasn’t an issue in our relationship. We were headed to the movies and had a conversation that I might be pregnant. He asked me to take a pregnancy test in the movie theater restroom. I just swung my arms in a rocking cradle motion as I walked towards them. My family started asking if we were done. My mom even told me I needed to make John an appointment for a vasectomy. Funny story.”
‘You died while we were sleeping. We were merely a few feet down the hall. When we woke to the puppy crying, you were ice cold.’: Mom loses military son to fentanyl overdose, ‘I had no idea how hard it was for you’
“We didn’t know when we went to bed, and you told us you loved us, it would be the last time we saw you alive. You didn’t know either. You only wanted care from the VA. Did you know the priority mail envelope that contained your hearing appointment was finally delivered to me, 4 months after you died? Yeah, you can’t make this up. We applied because of your pain.”
‘I regret so much. Not following my mommy instinct. I’m sorry. I did my 40-minute walk on the treadmill, hoping that would wake you up.’: Mother writes letter to baby born sleeping, ‘I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you.’
“The first words out of my mouth as my body flooded with oxytocin were, ‘You are so cute.’ You were perfect, big lips, small button nose, the cutest most perfect feet I have ever seen. I said out loud to your dad multiple times that you just were so quiet in there, and I hoped you were okay. I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you. Looking at you, finally, was the most magical moment.”
‘I promised I’d never divorce him. I was an Evangelical Christian woman. I wasn’t about to give that up because my disturbed husband couldn’t stop screaming at me.’: Woman leaves her abusive pastor husband after 10 years, ‘I never looked back’
“I hid big, dark, angry, broken feelings from the world. If I acknowledged their legitimacy, that meant I had to acknowledge that my husband–the megachurch pastor–was my abuser. And I was his victim. No, thanks! I’d much prefer to pretend everything is fine and our family is blessed.”
‘My friend thinks you’re cute.’ A co-worker handed me a napkin with a phone number on it. ‘My family doesn’t know I’m gay.’: Woman loses partner to stage 4 lung cancer
“One night, my wife couldn’t lift her legs up the two steps on the front porch. She was carrying a bag with a t-shirt in it. The weight of it was enough to make her fall. I went out to find her hunched over, completely unable to move. She stayed there, crying and yelling, ‘Just leave me out here! Let me die!’ I knew something was wrong. In the freezing cold, I dragged her. ‘How do we tell the kids?’ The numbness was unbearable.”
