“I walked home in a dress, but no underwear. I told my mom and dad I was staying with a friend, and then went into the operating room to have my right fallopian tube removed along with the baby that would never be. I went home the next day and said, ‘I feel like I have the flu’ and went straight to bed. My cry for help didn’t work. Nobody noticed. Nobody asked if I was okay. I knew if I didn’t start fighting for myself, I’d end up dead.”
‘My brother started the ‘naked man’ game when I was 6. I felt so empty I thought I might just float away.’: Woman overcomes sexual trauma, now uses kindness as an ‘act of rebellion’
‘Her best friend lost her husband in Afghanistan. His friends would all get black coffee. He always got a big pink smoothie with whipped cream on it. Then, something beautiful happened.’
“One of our favorite regulars walked in to order her usual. I noticed it was taking her a little longer to order, so I glanced over and saw she was crying. The employee on the register was choked up as well, and handed me this post card.”
‘Everyone poops during labor,’ she warned. It was my first time. I couldn’t stop asking questions. ‘Is it normal my water hasn’t broken yet?’ ‘Should I push? When do I push?’
“My questions didn’t stop there. ‘Is the baby okay?’ He was covered in white slime. ‘Should he be that color?’ I felt so completely unprepared. These women never looked at me and said, ‘That isn’t my job.’ That is a hero.”
‘My son complained of pain in his abdomen. He was gray in color, his cheeks sunken in. When he started throwing up, I thought, ‘Maybe he ate something bad.’ I was in denial.’
“We had no family history of it. When we got the news, I was thinking we had some quack doctor in the middle of the desert trying to diagnose my son by smelling his breath. He added, ‘If you waited 3 hours, he would’ve died in the car.’ My heart broke into a million pieces.”
‘Mrs. Fey, I’m sorry for getting in a fistfight during algebra, then calling you the B-word for breaking it up. And what did you do? You showed up at 7 a.m. to work with me one-on-one.’
“My parents were divorced, my father was addicted to painkillers. He was in jail most of high school. My mother and I weren’t getting along. None of this justifies how I acted, and it wasn’t your problem. You made my difficult life bearable.”
‘There was a catch. This boy was technically a man. At 20-years-old, our sexual relationship was illegal. After hiding our meetups, I came home to find a police officer on my couch.’
“My first true love went to jail, and I became a small-town girl with an over-sexualized reputation. Teachers hit on me. Dads from the daycare I worked at stalked me. I was ridiculed, taunted, labeled easy. Enter more boys.”
‘It’s 42 degrees outside. You’re lonely and hungry. You put your head down to try and forget the scream of hunger echoing in your mind. Then you hear the sound of an engine stop.’
“You look up to see a uniformed officer walking towards you. Your mind flutters thinking of everything you might be doing wrong. Suddenly this officer sits down.”
‘It was the most touching thing I’ve seen. I hope this lady finds peace through this tribute.’ Stranger pays for 1st birthday cake anonymously and the reason why will leave you in tears
“I asked what the customer name was, thinking she was paying for a specific person. She then started to tear up.”
‘It cost the man almost $900:’ Stranger buys ticket for airman to visit her dying father
“My father’s health took a nosedive and he wasn’t expected to live more than a couple days.”
