“‘The room looks good!,’ Eric peeked in. I didn’t smile. I didn’t say thank you. Instead, I was short with him. ‘Well, it’s done.’ We were hurting. ‘Come over here and give me a kiss,’ he smiled. I heard him say goodbye to the girls in the living room. He yelled, ‘love you’ and then the garage door slammed shut. Later, I heard my phone. It was a football coach’s number – not Eric’s. I pulled both of our blonde-headed girls to me. I wasn’t sure the words would escape me.”
‘What’s going on, mom?’ Deep breath. I’ll never forget their little faces looking up at me.’: Wife suddenly loses husband to massive ruptured brain aneurysm during ‘hardest point in our relationship’
‘I was just pulled over, for no reason.’ He’s black, I’m white. My heart raced. We get the CRAZIEST looks.’: White woman dating black man says ‘it’s an honor he’d choose to be with me, it blows me away’
“‘How many white women have you actually dated?’ I asked. ‘None. That makes you like…a pioneer. lol.’ I read his response, a knot forming in my stomach. ‘I’ve never really trusted or felt safe around white people.’ He’s HUGE, towering over my 5-foot figure. We get the CRAZIEST looks when we’re with our kids. His are biracial, my youngest is white white WHITE. I imagine people wondering if I cheated on him.”
‘He doesn’t buy flowers or cook romantic meals, but he always pushes the grocery cart.’: Woman claims ‘love is found’ in small gestures, learns to accept husband as is
“If his restaurant order is better, he’ll switch plates. He knows all my favorite ‘lady products’ and will run to the pharmarcy for me. He unloads the groceries while I sit with the seat warmers on. Every time. I wasted years looking for the love shown in movies, disappointed time and time again, instead of paying attention to how HE loves.”
‘I met my husband at 16, got pregnant at 17. He told me he was ‘different’ than all the other teen dads.’: Young mom overcomes ‘the ugly’ in her life, urges us to ‘put mental health first’
“My mental health took a turn for the worst. I found myself not wanting to clean, cook, or shower. I barely wanted to be a mom. Noah and I began arguing. One day, I spread a bottle of pills all over my bed and my mom walked in. I was forced to go to the hospital and get help. I just wanted to go back to being the person I was.”
‘Explain this.’ It was printed copies of every text I’d exchanged with my previous girlfriend.’: Single dad’s harrowing experience dating a narcissist, urges ‘even the strong can succumb to the cunningness of this evil’
“She had brainwashed me. She made me go through my social media accounts to explain my relationship with every female friend I had. If they didn’t meet her criteria, they needed to be deleted. My girlfriend ruthlessly pounded away at me with accusations of not being honest. It was torture. We would stay up all night arguing, the sun would rise, and I would go to work. She was obsessed with it.”
‘Ma’am there’s been reports of gunshots.’ The cops open the closet, we all stop. I see his legs.’: Woman finds true love after abuse, miscarries, welcomes rainbow baby with man who ‘rocked her world’
“I come home terrified, not knowing what to expect. I walk into each room looking for him, nowhere to be found. There are cops at the door. My heart sinks in panic. The cops pull him out, still alive. He stated he was ‘cleaning his gun,’ and he wanted to ‘hide in the closet.’ WHAT?! ‘Ma’am, you need to get away from him. This is not safe.’ Then I met Michael. I forgot what laughter felt like until that moment.”
‘He always watched porn because ‘he wasn’t getting any.’ He started pressuring me for sex, belittling me in front of his friends.’: Woman raises sex trafficking awareness after suffering in her own abusive relationship
“I was told to make an effort to look better, dress in a sexy manner. He would show me the kind of pornography he enjoys. I found so many messages he sent to women he claimed were his ‘friends.’ When I confronted him about it, he laughed.”
‘There it was, staring me in the face. ‘Traits of a sociopath.’ I was not crazy.’: After years of lies, sex-addiction, cheating, woman leaves abusive husband, done pretending to be ‘a perfect family’ to the ‘outside world’
“On our honeymoon, we stopped for lunch. He sat down and looked me in the eye. ‘I have to go grab something,’ he said. There I was, 18 years old and 5 months pregnant, sitting in the Jack-in-the-box praying he would come back. I waited for hours, no sign of him. To this day, he’s kept where he went a secret.”
‘My mom died today. Even though she abandoned me 6 years ago, up until this morning, I still had a mom.’: Abused daughter reflects on love for her mother, despite physical, verbal, emotional trauma
“She called and left me a voicemail saying she didn’t want anything to do with me anymore. I cannot count how many times I listened to that voicemail. Those words stung the same each time. She was just waiting for the day I would go crawling back on my knees to her.”
‘I saw this picture of my teen daughter and her boyfriend. I cringed. I yelled. I demanded she take it off social media.’: ‘Infuriated’ mom changes her mind after she recalls ‘young love’ with her late husband
“As I opened my eyes and focused on the empty space next to me in bed, the space I once shared with the man I love, her dad, I couldn’t help but smile. I knew what that young love felt like. I hope my daughter and her boyfriend never worry. I hope they never pay attention to anybody who questions their truth.”
