“I was walking down the sidewalk when I suddenly felt like my body was struck by lightning. My legs grew heavier with each step. All I could think was, ‘Something is very wrong.’ Nothing like this had ever happened before. The scariest part is fearing every day that I’ve passed it onto my daughter.”
‘Momma, when are you gonna get better? I miss how you used to be.’ I could no longer lift her up. I didn’t have the guts to tell her there’s no cure.’
‘The doctor said, ‘The parents need to understand there is no chance of their daughter having a meaningful life.’ I thought, ‘My daughter has meant more to me in the last 2 days than you will EVER mean to me.’
“What would our daughter have to do to be meaningful? Would she have to talk? Would she have to be able to solve math problems or perform in the school play? Graduating? Getting a job? Getting married? At what point would the doctor say, ‘Ok, you are meaningful now.”
‘One boy said, ‘Why is she even in here? She’s f—king crippled!’ I ignored it, but it would get worse. My mom and I got into a huge argument. She stopped, and looked at me in shock.’
“One day someone came to talk to me at lunch. I thought, ‘Finally someone wants to be my friend!’ Instead, they cut me off by saying, ‘If I was you I would kill myself because I couldn’t live like that.'”
‘Your baby doesn’t have eyes.’ What do you mean she doesn’t have eyes?! I know people are born blind, but to actually not have eyes seemed impossible to wrap my brain around.’
“After sharing concerns with my husband, I told her doctors I thought something was wrong. They blamed her blindness. I insisted it was deeper than that. She slept all the time, I had to wake her to nurse her, and I’d never seen her smile. Crazy, I know.”
‘But that won’t be the case for you,’ he said. I was 18 weeks pregnant when I was told to ‘just terminate’ the life of my unborn baby.
“I was told to terminate his life because there was very little chance he would survive pregnancy. And if by some miracle he did, he would most certainly endure a life of suffering marked by severe disabilities.”
‘Mom! You are white and I am brown, and that means Martin made it so you could adopt me!’ He grabbed his little brother’s hand. ‘Look! Martin’s dream came true.’
“He was 4 the first time kids told him he couldn’t play with them on the playground because he was black. I wasn’t prepared for any of it.”
‘On my way to work the sidewalks were blocked by Bird electric scooters in not one, but THREE, places’: Wheelchair user receives ‘astounding’ response to social media plea
“On my way to work, it became personal. The folks who charge the scooters at night placed them out in the morning—effectively blocking anyone from using the sidewalk. While others might be able to walk around the scooters, I didn’t have that choice.”
‘I couldn’t process it. Twin 2 was born without an eye, ear, nostril’: Single mom ‘plunged into a pool of guilt for something I was convinced I had caused’
“When Harry was almost 3-years-old he was also diagnosed with Autism and my guilt and grief intensified.”
The silent tragedy affecting today’s children
“Our children are in a devastating emotional state! Talk to teachers and professionals who have been working in the field for the last 15 years.”
‘Autism is sad. But I am not.’
“That urge to peek at the last page of my story has gone away. My heart feels secure. I am ok not with autism, but certainly with Sadie.”