“All I could think was, ‘This is so wrong. I do NOT belong here. I had a pregnancy, not cancer.’ I had stage 4 cancer, and it was spreading fast. It all started two months earlier with a positive pregnancy test. Then the symptoms started. You know when your doctor calls you from his vacation in Hawaii, the news isn’t good. ‘I need you to meet with an oncologist on Tuesday.’ Just like that. I instantly broke into uncontrollable sobs.”
‘I have two babies, I can’t die!’ My bathroom was covered in blood. It looked like a murder scene.’: Woman’s molar pregnancy causes stage 4 cancer, ‘My head was spinning. I couldn’t wrap my head around it’
‘Help me!’ The color drained from my face. I awoke to cramping and blood dripping on the bathroom floor.’: LGBT couple navigate homophobia, reciprocal IVF journey, ‘our girls will be filled with lots of love’
“Our babies! Were they gone? We drove the 3 hours to the IVF clinic. The doctor informed us, ‘One baby is still there, and next to the baby is a blood clot 4 times its size.’ I remember my eyes filling with tears. I began crying on my wife’s shoulder. ‘What you two are doing isn’t right.’ No one ever tells you how hard it will be to have kids when you’re gay.”
‘It is ok darling girl, mummy and daddy love you.’ She took her last breaths in our arms.’: 10-month-old baby girl dies from incurable brain condition Miller Dieker Syndrome, ‘She had a life well lived’
“My husband said, ‘We want our baby to feel the sun on her cheeks, the wind in her hair, the love all around her.’ And she really did. Lily’s smiles are the best thing I will ever see in my lifetime. I know that. We cuddled her until she was gone. I was sobbing, crying out, ’my baby, my baby!’ We bathed her and spent one last night together. She looked so peaceful, like she was sleeping.”
‘My brother started the ‘naked man’ game when I was 6. I felt so empty I thought I might just float away.’: Woman overcomes sexual trauma, now uses kindness as an ‘act of rebellion’
“I walked home in a dress, but no underwear. I told my mom and dad I was staying with a friend, and then went into the operating room to have my right fallopian tube removed along with the baby that would never be. I went home the next day and said, ‘I feel like I have the flu’ and went straight to bed. My cry for help didn’t work. Nobody noticed. Nobody asked if I was okay. I knew if I didn’t start fighting for myself, I’d end up dead.”
‘After 3 miscarriages, I was told I was ‘selfish’ to want more kids. ‘You have 2 babies. You no longer have a right to try.’ I felt hopeless, shameful.’: Woman explains how her marriage grew stronger the ‘year she lost 3 babies’
“When we lost our first baby, it felt more like a fluke. When we lost our second baby, it no longer felt normal; it felt like my fault. I was afraid of what it would do to my relationship. Would he blame me? Was I letting him down? Did he CARE? Those questions became my insecurities.”
‘He had a stranger over at my house where my kids sleep. My entire 10-year marriage was a lie.’: Woman credits husband’s infidelity with life- changing weight loss
“In one night, I found out I weighed over 400 pounds. I also found out I was pregnant and losing a baby in one breath. That moment was a severe wake-up call I needed to change my life. I didn’t realize how much my husband’s infidelity had affected me until I stepped on that scale. I left him without a car and without a plan.”
‘My friend is having her first baby the same month I lost mine. But you are NOT my trigger.’
“It’s baby season. I am honored to celebrate with you. I love attending your baby showers and purchasing those little newborn clothes. But we all grieve differently.”
‘Everyone poops during labor,’ she warned. It was my first time. I couldn’t stop asking questions. ‘Is it normal my water hasn’t broken yet?’ ‘Should I push? When do I push?’
“My questions didn’t stop there. ‘Is the baby okay?’ He was covered in white slime. ‘Should he be that color?’ I felt so completely unprepared. These women never looked at me and said, ‘That isn’t my job.’ That is a hero.”
‘My wife is now carrying our 8th child, our 8th loss. Everything inside me is twisted with pain.’: Husband mourns as ‘strong, courageous’ wife suffers 8th miscarriage
“I can’t think about the gravity of this situation. Don’t cry in front of all these strangers. Our parents will arrive soon, then the doctor will tell me to come back and see my wife as she wakes up. I’ll look at her and have that tangled up emotion of grief and gratitude. She’ll show her strength like she always does, even though she’s hopped up on meds and just went through one of the most traumatic things ever.”
‘His peaceful face let me know, ‘I’m free, I am OKAY Mom, like you said I would be.’: Mom receives message in dream from son that died of cancer
“I have received over 50 vivid dream visits from Logan since his passing, where he is solid, warm and as real as you and I. Some dreams he tells me things, others we just hug, hold hands, laugh together, or spend time together saying nothing at all. One of the most unforgettable things he has told me are, ‘Heaven is just another place. I’m not gone!”
