“After losing my mom, I once again feel like that lost little girl in the department store, like the whole world has collapsed. Only this time, no amount of screaming, crying, begging will bring her back. Not a day goes by I don’t recall her. A taste, a smell, a word, a touch. When all else fails, I turn to the memories. But I literally cannot cry, cannot shed a single tear, without also smiling. THAT is the kind of love she left behind.”
‘She took her last breath. Over 400 people showed at her funeral, even on the busiest day of the week. That is the legacy she had.’: Woman pens sweet tribute to mother, ‘we will never stop hoping to see you again’
‘It’s bad, they have her on life support.’ I cried out to keep my sister earth side, not to take her from us.’: Young woman recalls sister’s harrowing car accident, how she overcame her ‘impossible’ recovery
“It was just after 11 a.m. on a Saturday morning when I received the phone call from my mom. ‘Your sister has been in a car accident.’ She was headed to the hospital. I’ll never forget the pain in my dad’s voice and anguish in my mother’s cry’s echoing in the background. I decided in that room of 7 doctors that my sister had already showed us she wants to live!”
‘You’d look like me, I was sure. Curly blonde hair, blue eyes, chubby cheeks. I was lucky.’: Mom pens emotional tribute to daughter she miscarried, ‘I needed to lose you to find me’
“I flushed with my eyes sealed shut. I cried more tears than I knew possible. ‘I’m so sorry,’ I said. What kind of mother flushes her baby? I hoped I was wrong. I hoped you were still there. But I knew. A mother always knows. Everyone kept apologizing. I didn’t know why because it wasn’t their fault. It was mine. I had one job, to protect you, and I couldn’t even do that.”
‘Get here quick.’ My husband was sitting in a truck with a black eye swollen shut, trembling. ‘What happened to me?’: Woman recounts the lessons her farming family learned during unexpected hardships
“I wasn’t quite prepared for what I was about to see. They told us his wrist was shattered and he had amnesia. Two weeks before his surgery, I had a prophylactic double mastectomy. Sounds crazy, right? This past summer, the radiologist made a mistake and didn’t compare my scans and basically stated that I had cancer. I decided to go flat. The anxiety was real.”
‘Jess, call 911,’ he gasped before the phone went dead. I arrived home to discover my husband laid out on a stretcher.’: Woman loses husband to brain cancer, marries again after receiving ‘message from a complete stranger’
“‘Oh God no. Please no…’ I whispered that night, my legs numb from sitting motionless. I stared straight into the eyes of the young doctor, trying to digest the news I’d just heard. Brain cancer. Earlier that evening, within 5 seconds of pulling into the driveway, I received a frantic call from my husband. ‘No, no, no,’ the only coherent thought I was able to form.”
‘I remember his name, I remember his face, but most of all, I remember his scream.’: Nurse says healthcare professionals have a ‘different kind of resilience, ‘They are superheroes, in every sense of the word’
“As I stepped into the room, I experienced something I never could have prepared myself for. The look of absolute misery on his face, the way the tears streamed down his cheeks, the way his eyes pleaded with us to stop. I helped hold him down. It was necessary, yet so horrible. I had tears in my eyes. I went home that day wondering how I was going to come back tomorrow.”
‘The words hit me like a truck, ‘Gabby fell into the pool and she isn’t breathing.’: Aunt urges parents to know pool toys give ‘false feeling’ of safety after niece’s near-fatal swimming accident
“I always called my mom on my way home from work, but she wasn’t answering, so for some reason I felt the need to call my brother, Tim. He was at a friend’s house swimming. I heard my nieces and nephews playing in the background. I never thought that would be the last time I’d hear Gabby’s little voice.”
‘Please quit, that’s enough.’ I leaned over you as we tried to pump life back into your soul again.’: Nurse pens emotional tribute to patients lost, admits she loses ‘a little of myself’ every time
“The look in your eyes said you were already gone. Your family wept, told us to keep trying. They didn’t want to let you leave. So, we continued on. Medications. Shocks. Pumps. Sweat poured down my face. I tried to hide my tears by staring at my shoelaces. We watched the life leave your body and go to a place none of us know or understand. We tried so hard to save you. We just couldn’t do it that day.”
‘My daughter arrived on 9/11. I woke up to see the first tower falling. I thought my family was watching an action movie.’: Mother gives birth on September 11th, ‘I was not emotionally OK’
“My OBGYN came in to check on me while not knowing where her own husband was at Ground Zero. I was in a hospital where they were calling in extra nurses and doctors for the casualties that should be arriving, but never came. Everyone knows where they were on 9/11, but I lived that day in a strange reality.”
‘My newborn son got Herpes from a kiss, and nearly died.’: Mom’s 4-week-old son contracts HSV-1, urges us to refrain from ‘kissing newborns’
“I noticed Noah’s little eye was puffy, agitated, and watering a lot. I was told it was nothing out of the ordinary and it would ‘clear up.’ He didn’t have a fever and was eating and sleeping as normal, so we were sent home. Days later, he had blisters around his eye. Something was wrong. After some tests, they caught it. My boy tested positive for Herpes.”
