“It keeps me lying awake at night, tears and stress making my heart race. I’m drowning in medical debt. And I know I’m not alone.”
‘The billing department doesn’t care if your baby died. The medical companies don’t care if you’re on unpaid leave because your child is a long-term patient. You still have to pay.’
‘Katie, get off the couch!,’ was the last thing I heard before witnessing the shattering sound of the gun.’
“I’ll never forget looking down at my trembling hands as if I was a character in a war movie. Except, this wasn’t fictional. This was real and raw and urgent; no life experience could have prepared me for the intensity of what I was to see, hear, feel, and ache over.”
‘He told me he didn’t feel attached to our baby, and he didn’t love me anymore. I secretly hoped I would die in childbirth. My life as I knew it, was completely dismantled.’
“I decided to clean out her bedroom. It was a virtual cesspool. As I was clearing away the reminders of her unwell state, I found her suicide note.”
‘What is wrong? Is something wrong?’ He didn’t answer me. ‘Chad, seriously, tell me what’s wrong.’ He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and leaned in.’
“He shot back with a look on his face I had never seen before. Fear, maybe. Shock. Panic. Oh God, what was it? The blood left his face. He was pale. Almost confused.”
‘He was my best friend. The last thing he said to me was: ‘I’m ok mom, I love you too.’ That was at 10:20 on Saturday night.’
“He always answered my calls. But on Sunday morning, he didn’t. And I just knew. My son gave a gut wrenching scream that didn’t sound like it could come from a 6-year-old.”
‘My eyes darted back and forth as I tried to make sense of where I was. As the fog lifted inside my head, I vaguely remembered bits and pieces of the day before, events that changed my life.’
“While I lay on the operating table, my husband sat in the waiting room, wondering if he would lose all three children and his wife in one day. As he overheard the doctors, one word stood out.”
‘When I wiped, I felt something coming out. My world came crashing down. I got a sick feeling in my stomach – I knew what was about to happen.’
“I laid on that cold bed, put my feet in the stirrups and prayed. After moments that felt like forever, my doctor looked up at me. ‘You’re having twins!’ We were in shock. But seconds later, our doctor had a weird look on her face. She said, ‘Wait! I think I see triplets!’”
‘This year, I did a thing. A great, big, huge, beautiful thing. I put my wedding ring back on.’
“I will not take this ring off again until I meet the man who recognizes my value and wants to love me completely – just like my husband. I will no longer waste my time trying to convince somebody to pick me.”
‘There are items that are impossible to let go of, even if they are broken. My dad bought them for my children. He died almost 3 years ago.’
“Getting rid of anything he had a hand in giving them seems impossible. It’s like little by little, the things he was a part of die slowly over the years, and I don’t want to aide in that disappearance. Every time I look at it, I think about my dad.”
‘Expect problems,’ she told us. I had heard those words before, yet my brain couldn’t make sense of them. ‘What kind of problems?,’ I asked, my voice trembling.’
“A dark thought crossed my mind. ‘Maybe David will die, and we’ll be able to forget this whole thing ever happened.’ As soon as that thought came, it was quickly followed by another. ‘God, please, please don’t let my baby die!’”
