“Everyone asked if we were doing anything special in honor of Alex on the first anniversary of his death. I refuse, to this day, to call it an anniversary. It is the day our lives changed forever. Anniversaries are for celebrating. So I just call it the day Alex died.”
‘The ache in my heart starts around the holidays. I know I am being ‘watched.’ I’m actually afraid everyone will think I have moved on and forgotten my son.’
‘I begged you to stay. I gave you a big hug, not knowing it’d be the last. You told me you’d see me soon. I believed you.’: Little sister misses ‘other half’ during holidays after losing her to suicide
“As it hit midnight, I felt this overwhelming urge to call you. I knew something wasn’t right. I fell to the floor in shock. ‘Your sister has taken her life.’ I could not believe you were gone.”
‘He was perfectly healthy with no fever. I called 911 while mom made sure Sawyer didn’t harm himself. By the time the paramedics arrived the seizure had stopped.’: Mom details son’s experience through seizures, EEG and the Emergency Room
“After being in our room at the ER for less than 10 minutes Sawyer had another seizure followed by another one less than an hour later. At this point, our new doctor was taking it very seriously. Sawyer got a CT scan and was admitted to the hospital. He had a few more seizures before we saw the neurologist on call.”
‘I’ve learned my lesson today, NEVER drive in a hail storm! I covered my infant with my body to stop her from getting badly injured.’
“The hail blew out our windows. I could feel the hail like pins and needles on my back.”
‘To some, Maddie was just a junkie — when they saw her addiction, they stopped seeing her. And what a loss for them.’
“Though we would have paid any ransom to have her back, any price in the world, this disease would not let her go until she was gone.”
‘We’d finally decided to tie the knot. One year and 6 days later, he was dead. There were no warning signs, just a phone call telling me my husband – who I’d spoken to only hours ago – had died.’
“There was no accident, no cancer diagnosis, nothing amiss beyond what the doctors said was the flu.”
‘I want my life back. I want my husband back. I want my kids to feel whole again. I want it back. All of it.’
“At the time, after his diagnosis, I thought his love for me, and my love for him did not change. Looking back, I can see now that it did. For the first time in our relationship, we were scared at the same time.”
‘Your sister was in an accident. Her car was hit by a train. She didn’t make it.’: Sister suffers from PTSD after losing sibling, admits ‘I’m having a hard time swallowing that pill’
“We were texting. I said, ‘Punkin, we’ll talk later.’ My later didn’t go the way I had planned. My momma was on the phone screaming. What am I supposed to do? My daddy. I’ve got to get to my daddy. Where are my brothers? Do they know? We planned every painful step of her memorial. We had to pick out her clothes, jewelry, the box we’d lay her in. I’m done. I’m done hiding.”
‘He is a great guy, a great husband and father. How could he have done this!?’ It’s because he did it when no one was looking.’: Domestic violence survivor speaks out
“I have LIVED this. When I left, everybody was surprised. This is going to sting – not just a little. But a lot. The man you love… Does he call you a b*tch? A whore? That’s not love.”
‘You abandoned me, but I’m only stronger now.’
“I realized why I hadn’t given up on someone so toxic for so long. I just wanted to be loved by a man. I wanted to feel acceptance from a man.”
