“’I don’t know what to do!’ I was woken up throughout the night by a little girl screaming for her papa. Waking up crying for my Ben. The reality was unbearable. I was staring at a life I didn’t want.”
‘How am I was supposed to break the news to my children?’ They didn’t have an answer. It was an accident.’: Widow describes ‘surreal, intense’ pain after husband dies from sudden accident
‘I screamed, ‘We have guys trapped!’ I crawled out and ran while being burned alive.’: Man describes ‘pain, misery’ after surviving life-threatening burns working as firefighter
“The driver accidentally veered off the road. We crashed into a steep ravine, and were engulfed in flames. I immediately knew, I’d have to run through the fire and get burned. I chose to run. I crawled up the ravine and ran as fast as I could, screaming for my buddies. Sadly, my buddies never made it.”
‘I cried when I found your daughter lying in a ditch, high on meth, but you didn’t know.’: Police officer claims ‘we’re people too’ in emotional letter, ‘no training can prepare us for the things we see’
“I was devastated when I found the 32-year old veteran dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but you didn’t know. I missed my kids birthdays, school plays, and family trips because I had to work, but you didn’t know. I was never comfortable at social gatherings because with the things I’ve seen, I can’t trust anyone. I had problems, just like everyone else, but you didn’t know.”
‘Take your kids, get out of there! Leave him now!’ There was a knock on our door. The cops. They’d seen the video.’: Woman narrowly escapes abusive man, flees home to family who cried when she was ‘finally free’
“My heart was pounding as I stood in the middle of the airport. My two boys aged 3 and 4, gazed up at me with sleepy eyes. It was 6:00 a.m. We were flying home to the USA. I was trying to act calm. The woman at check-in gave me a bewildered look when I told her we had no luggage to check. I was terrified I was going to be asked if I had their father’s permission to take them out the country. I didn’t.”
‘She’s not breathing!’ I woke to my husband violently shaking, holding our lifeless baby. I call the coroner for answers every day. It’s a ritual.’: Mom loses daughter to SIDS, says she was ‘ripped away with zero explanation’
“I writhed and wailed on the cold hospital floor. ‘I killed my baby. Oh God, I killed my baby!’ We had no answers. My husband said something about the moonlight shining through the window on her face that gave him an eerie feeling. He turned on the lamp next to our bed, and made the spine-chilling discovery. I used to joke my day was a success if my kids were alive and asleep by 10. Now I think about how carelessly I jested about their survival and I’m nauseated.”
‘I want to live!,’ I was screaming. The cops were on their way. I was trying to get out of the bathroom, trying to get my boyfriend off me, trying to hide in the tub.’: Single mom’s empowering story of surviving domestic abuse with infant daughter
“I had 3 months to figure out my escape. I stopped fighting back with my daughter’s father and kept calm. He was losing control, and it drove him crazy. ‘You’re not gonna take her from me,’ he’d say. I’d wake up to him pacing the kitchen talking to himself. I stayed quiet and texted a friend who said, ‘Wait 10 minutes, and then you call the cops. He could be lying.’”
‘I took a hike into the woods. I see a man sitting around a fire. He was upset. He feels like he has no one. I sat and talked with him, and gave him numbers to call for assistance. He refused.’
“About 45 minutes into the playlist, a song played. ‘Can I borrow your phone?,’ he asked. I said yes. ‘I miss home. I want to go home,’ he said. I took in a deep breath; the goose bumps came over me and I realized THIS was the feeling.”
‘My best friend pulled into my driveway. As l was venting my pain, she was texting my HUSBAND in a secret relationship with him, that l would soon find out about.’
“I constantly had a voice playing in my head, saying, ‘How can you continue to love this man, when he continues to hurt you?’ If you had told me l would be sitting in my living room with my best friend who secretly started having a relationship with my husband, I would have laughed in your face.”
‘If you’re not busy on Monday, you can come see me in the hospital?’ We left our info with this stranger, our waiter. He showed up for 6 hours, talking and calming us down.’
“He stood in that ICU waiting for Tommy to open his eyes so he could fulfill his promise to an 8-year-old boy he did not know. THANK YOU IS NOT ENOUGH.”
‘I see you as an attractive woman, not my daughter.’ Then he said, ‘You’re the kind of woman I always wanted. If you weren’t my daughter I would marry you.’
“My father made me feel guilty about it. He said I would destroy our family. That he would get deported to Mexico and my family would lose everything we worked so hard for. He told me to say I made it up because I was a rebelling teenager angry at my father. So I lied to them, I told them exactly what he told me to say.”
