“When we turned the corner he said, ‘Home.’ I smiled, ‘Yeah, buddy, that’s home.’ When I signed the adoption papers, I burst into tears.”
‘Three days before Christmas, my phone rang at 8 a.m. ‘When can you get them?’ I stood in the hallway, frozen.’: Foster, adoptive mom thanks mother for support, ‘I had a great example’
‘She’d walk into a room and shout, ‘Grammy’s here, have no fear!’ The woman was a force! Anywhere she went, she was the center of attention.’: Woman shares ode to fierce grandma battling Alzheimer’s
“The disease slowly took away her ability to form coherent sentences. But somehow, we always found a way to understand each other; love has a way of filling in the gaps. Gram is a force to be reckoned with.”
‘Who is that tall man that now towers over her? Where is her little boy? How did it go so fast? She rests her read against his broad shoulder.’: Mom urges ‘remember how it all feels’
“The tiny newborn. The sweet toddler. The adventurous boy. The challenging teenager. The confident man. The doting father. She’s loved them all. And she knows that for as long as she lives, she’ll always remember how this feels.”
‘I love you, too.’ She’d finally remembered me. I curled up in her arms, taking it all in. It was the last time I’d see her alive.’: Woman shares sweet reminder to ‘hug your grandparents while you can’
“These hands belonged to the feistiest woman I knew. They comforted me in my hardest times, wrapped around me in times of celebration. They rocked me…and my first born. And even when she forgot who I was, they interlaced mine. Today, I pray you all live like Nana.”
‘My grandmother always kept a whistle next to the phone.’: Woman shares touching life lesson from grandma, ‘Blow a whistle on anything that disturbs your peace’
“I know. It’s strange, right? I’ve come to believe it is either absolutely crazy or pure genius.”
‘In my day, they didn’t have all this autism and ADHD stuff.’ I wasn’t sure how they’d react to the news. It wasn’t something they grew up with.’: Mom to daughter with autism worries about ‘generational gap’ with grandparents, ‘You’re never too old to be educated’
“I braced myself for what I thought would be a skeptical, potentially offensive reaction from them. They were shocked and concerned, as I expected.”
‘I’m just going to the doctor.’ Dad never came back. I became the main caretaker at 9.’: Abandoned daughter makes it through foster care, ‘You have to turn pain into purpose’
“I tried to sleep in the same room as my brother, but the foster parents wouldn’t allow it. Imagine being stuck in a snowstorm, clothes stripped, your soul feeling empty and cold.”
‘One day, I opened up her cookbook. Inside was an inscription. I cried tears I didn’t know I had.’: Woman honors late grandmother with tattoo, ‘I love you forever and always’
“Naming my child after my grandmother never seemed like enough. It never seemed like it was enough to pay tribute to the woman who meant more to me than I could ever express in words.”
Dear Daughters—Don’t Let The High School Lunchroom Label Follow You
“Because nice girl, mean girl, sleep-around girl? You just don’t have time for it. You are going to shake the world, and bring it to its knees.”
‘Just leave it all, sweetie. Leave the mess. It means you were around today, and a little piece of you is still here.’: Grandma shares sweet reminder to ‘never take life for granted’
“How often do we hustle and bustle to pick up our home’s messes? How often do we grumble at our little ones to ‘please’ straighten up? The moment took my breath away, and filled my heart with a bittersweet reminder.”
