“I’d been toying with the idea of having him immortalized on my body. I wanted to keep him close to me, and we all knew how important fishing was to my grandpa. But I had a partner that wouldn’t ‘allow’ me to get tattoos on my body. Luckily, I kept the idea within me until I found true love. Each day I see my tattoo, I am reminded of this huge bond I had with my grandpa.”
‘I think I am meant to know you.’ My grandpa didn’t recognize us anymore. This disease transformed him into someone else.’: Woman shares ‘fond memories’ of granddad with Alzheimer’s
‘We piled on the bed. Mike had his arm wrapped around our Dorothy bear. She’s always in our bedroom, but doesn’t always make it onto the bed with us. Tonight she did.’: Mother’s emotional tribute to stillborn daughter
“I was looking at the picture and thinking about how it’s so comforting when all of us can be represented in a photo. Anyone who knows our story would understand who that bear symbolizes.”
‘I just want to stand by dad,’ I told her. This feeling came over me. For a second, I thought it was a joke’: Daughter’s eerie intuition about dad’s untimely death
“We got settled into our seats. I was on one end, my dad on the other. I felt this feeling come over me. I got up, went and stood by my dad. My mom asked me what I was doing. Minutes later, I see his cell phone drop from his hand. His head goes back, and his body is shaking.”
‘233 Bossler Street. I’ve written that address hundreds of times. I’ll never write that address again.’ Woman reminisces on unexpected ‘last time’ she’d ever visit her grandparents’ home
“I never made it back because life got busy. I always thought there would be another time. There won’t be. Now, it’s someone else’s home, with someone else’s family.”
‘Are you thinking about killing yourself?’ He became scared of his own brain. The pain was too great. I keep trying to be mad at him. I can’t manage it, though.’
“He got this weird look about him. I didn’t think too much of it. Pretty normal for Mark. Later, he told me that after our time together, he had made a noose, and driven out of town with the intention of hanging himself. He said he wanted to make sure it was perfect before he died.”
‘We don’t know how much time he has left. ‘Jason, I cannot lose one more moment.’ My husband nodded his head. ‘I know,’ he said. These will be our last family photos.’
“I wanted to save my son’s smile and innocence, since I couldn’t save him. When the end happens, I will have these memories to remind me of the wonderful times we had fighting a horrid disease. I will have those beautiful blue eyes I saw for the first time when he came into this world.”
‘Mid-meltdown, my son sticks his rubber snake down his pants and yells, ‘LOOK! MY PENIS HAS MUTATED!’ I scream-whisper in my most ‘I mean business’ mom voice, ‘Stop it right now!’
“Breathe. Everything is fine. We are making memories, dang it! I know, I know. Parents shouldn’t raise their voice. Add me to your prayer list, I need some work. Then, I noticed a silent tear trickle down my son’s cheek.”
‘Our doorbell rang. We opened the door and stood face-to-face with two State Troopers on our front porch. Just like that, our ‘normal’ would be forever changed.’
“Both of my kids were not home. But I knew they were here about Darian. She normally texts us when she leaves practice, and we hadn’t heard from her. ‘She was in an accident,’ was the last thing I heard.”
‘Doctors told me I was ‘lying.’ I hadn’t started my period. Before I took the birth control, I took a pregnancy test. It was POSITIVE!? We bought 5 more tests. All of them were positive!’
“I was having vivid, strange dreams. A neighbor said, ‘Are you pregnant?’ I said ‘no’ and cried. A switch flipped in me. I became crazy emotional. I was having day dreams about drilling a hole in my head or cutting it off. I went to doctor after doctor. They all said that it was because of my weight.”
‘She wanted to crash a wedding, toilet paper a house and travel. I remember looking at her sitting there, thinking, ‘She will not be here much longer.’
“I will never forget the day she called me and told me. She was sorry and she didn’t understand why it was happening to her.”
