“One day he’ll have you pinned on the floor with all of his weight, smashing your face into the carpet. I know you don’t want to believe it happened at all. I know you wish, with all your heart, things were different. I know you feel worthless. But I also know you can do it. Stop trying to figure it out, stop trying to make a plan and just run.”
‘I know you think he’s going to stop. One day, sweet girl, there won’t be a next time. One day, it will be absolutely too late.’: Abuse survivor urges others to get out, ‘You’re a warrior. I know you can save yourself’
‘We cloth diapered so we can stomach cloth toilet paper if it comes down to it. We live the camper life, full time. COMMUNICATION IS VITAL.’: Mom who lives in camper says ‘it’s OKAY to need space right now’
“We packed up the essentials and moved 600 miles away from our home into a 100-square-foot camper. It’s safe to say we know a little something about small space confinement. This could be your most connected year, if you allow it to be.”
‘I remember saying the very words, ‘Not her.’ That was my breaking point. Hurt me, but not my sister. I threatened to tell my mommy what they did.’: After surviving abuse, cancer woman says ‘sometimes just having someone to talk to is enough’
“I tried to hide it from my parents but their child had changed and they knew something had happened. I walked onto the bridge with tears in my eyes. This is how I would do it. She watched me, and through the grace of God, decided she should call the police. This woman, I truly believe, was an angel.”
‘You’re asking me to take in a 15-year-old teenager who is about to give birth?’ This is not what we signed up for.’: Couple become grandparents at 35, ‘She made our life better’
“’She’s due in 3 weeks and has nowhere to go. Would you guys please take her?’ We can’t do this. On the other hand, how could I say no? This young girl was just desperate for a mom, her mom, and she was getting me instead.”
‘Sorry we dropped the ball and didn’t tell you about this, but we found it in your blood work 4 years ago.’: After years of fatigue, husband is finally diagnosed with rare blood cancer
“He just needed to learn how to de-stress properly after work. He just needed to sleep better. He just needed to make more of an effort. Fine. Whatever. ‘Honey, I need you to take me to the ER.’ I looked at my husband, who absolutely hates stepping foot inside of a hospital. Something was wrong.”
‘His family kept up appearances and cared what people thought. Everyone knew mine was a hot mess. We’d never seen a relationship we would want. We had to go find it.’: Woman claims the ‘communication’ is the key to a healthy relationship
“We were too young, too inexperienced, too still in college, too poor… I was 18 and he was 20. Nobody wanted us to get married. His family got quiet, tiptoed, and avoided.”
‘Nana is in the hospital.’ She had a tear in her heart and only had three more days to live. It was unreal.’: Woman raised by grandma says ‘it is truly a miracle she is still here with us’
“I got a phone call from my mom. ‘Nana is in the hospital.’ I needed to spend her last few days by her side, just like she spent my whole life by mine. She didn’t know how little time she had left, and we wanted to keep it that way. I boarded a plane right away to go home.”
‘My girl fought when I tried to give her some medicine to help with her cough. So much so that she peed on my bed and me.’: Mom says ‘I cried about everything, and, that is okay; it’s allowed’
“I stepped in dog poop. I cried tonight because I felt spent. I watched a video on how, in Spain, they don’t have enough ventilators, and so no one over the age of 65 is getting them, only the young. And then I cried a little more because I felt guilty for feeling spent.”
‘I found an older couple on the street, walking and holding hands. ‘Is this how it is all going to end?’ I worried how hard it must be to be over 65 in this crazy time.’: Woman says ‘we’ve been given the gift of time with our loved ones’
“Running through the streets in the midst of the coronavirus felt like time had turned back 25 years. I ran by a group of neighbors standing a few feet apart, talking and laughing like they had all the time in the world. I passed by a man spraying his bushes, a woman jumping rope in her garage. Everything had slowed down.”
‘I know this is a wildly unpopular opinion, but get dressed. It actually helps.’: Mom says during pandemic ‘I have nothing to prove, but everything to save’
“We’ve all seen the jokes about day pajamas and night pajamas. Or the ones asking those of quarantining in jeans, what exactly do we have to prove. I have nothing to prove, but everything to save.”
