“I got the call around 3:30 a.m. I spent 9 months preparing for that call. 9 months worth of nights obsessively checking the volume on the phone, making sure it was charged, that it was close by, that I hadn’t somehow missed any calls. Well I got my call. Loud and clear.”
‘He was 6 months old and only 9 pounds. I am a living nightmare. They knew it was all a tremendous f*ck up. They knew he was like this because of them.’
‘I woke up to hear him gasping. I thought, ‘Is this actually happening?’ As I watched my husband turn blue to gray, I cried to PLEASE not take him! I begged him not to leave me and the boys.’
“His exact words were, ‘People drinking these drinks are playing Russian Roulette with their lives.’ I was blown away. I couldn’t believe just one drink could do this damage.”
‘Don’t over-pluck your beautiful eyebrows. Stop trying to fight your weirdness. You don’t need to impress anyone.’ Woman’s advice to her younger self she’s now using in her 30s
“10. Don’t live by other people’s compliments. Don’t die by other people’s criticisms. Take it all with a grain of salt.”
‘Their hearts were broken, but they were thinking of someone else.’ Heart transplant recipient reunites with donor’s family
“It’s like having a piece of him with me all the time,” he said. “It’s almost like, if I wanted to talk to him, I can call her.”
‘Her birth, which was supposed to be beautiful and intimate, was traumatic. I couldn’t stop shaking and vomiting. I had no idea if I would ever see my baby girl alive.’
“We had just gotten news, bad news. I sat in shock. I turned to my husband and told him it was clear what her middle name should be – Hope.”
‘Hey Dad, I haven’t been feeling too well. Could you take me to the doctor? I think I might have a sinus infection.’
“‘Sure baby, I’ll pick you up after school.’ My daughter’s sinus infection was anything but.”
‘I found this picture the other day. Life felt incredibly difficult and overwhelming at that time. I was still in my 20’s, trying to survive and make it through each day.’
“I used to care what others thought. But I know now, none of that matters at all.”
‘Dear NICU Mom, I see you. This moment isn’t at all how you envisioned, but you are determined to embrace it anyway.’
“I see you carefully wash your hands before you lean over that tiny plastic crib to touch your baby’s face. I see you with a special heirloom dress and milestone blocks commemorating her first month of life.”
‘I felt them again last night.’ I was suddenly a single dad to 4 boys. This wasn’t supposed to happen.’: Man loses wife to Cardiac Sarcoidosis, vows to ‘tell her story’
“We talked a bit, fell asleep. The next thing out of her mouth was a gasp. I shook her, screamed her name. No response. A wave of terror came over me as I fumbled to call 911. A machine violently compressed her chest over and over. They wouldn’t stop until I gave the word. I started to get pleading looks from the doctors. As each excruciating second passed, hope faded. Death enveloped the room. I finally uttered the words, ‘It’s enough.'”
The dementia is taking her away. He leans in to kiss her. Ever so quietly I hear her say, ‘I love you,’ before staring into a place only she can see.
“‘Is she OK? Who is watching her?’ Who could possibly love her like he does, to know what being apart is doing to his heart? He doesn’t understand why no one will listen. Why no one realizes how much she needs him, and more importantly, how much he needs her.”
