“It was a crisp fall morning. I loaded my boys, 13 months and 3 years old, into the stroller for a walk. We made it halfway across the crosswalk when I saw the car. In slow motion, the stroller was ripped from my white-knuckled hands. A sound I’ll never forget. My oldest was crying, his little face covered in blood and panic. I ran to the stroller, flipped it over. I expected to hear him cry. Silence. I pulled his tiny limp body out and just screamed his name over and over. My world came crashing down.”
‘I stepped into the road. In a split second, a car struck my stroller. My baby was ejected 15 feet. The other lay, gray and motionless.’: Mom ‘will never again take anything for granted’ after 2 boys struck by vehicle
‘I called him from a crackhouse. ‘I don’t know you very well, but if you don’t come for me, I’m going to die here.’: Woman overcomes lifelong battle with addiction, ‘I finally found how to love myself’
“I was invited to a party across the street. There were white rocks on the table. I asked, ‘What is that?’ They asked me if I wanted to try it. The second it went into my body, I was already addicted. In the middle of winter, I walked down the street with no shoes as blood ran down my legs. After ONE HIT, I went from start athlete to sticking needles in my arms in abandoned apartment buildings. I sold my body, my soul, and everything for the next one.”
‘She pointed to the TV to distract us. We looked back, and she was gone.’ That was the moment I became an adult orphan.’: Woman earns college degree in honor of late mother, jumpstarts grief support groups
“At 9:00 a.m. my sister called with the news. I was at work, in the midst of a project. We hung up and I don’t even remember breathing. ‘I have to leave for a week,’ I told my supervisor. As my sister was driving, the sun was warm in her van. I discovered my chest wasn’t feeling heavy anymore. Inner warmth just filled me. So much was going to change.”
‘My son chooses to wear makeup, dresses. ‘But…what if he catches The Gay?’ Well, then I’ll have a gay son. Simple as that. It’s a non-issue.’: Mom embraces son’s fluid gender expression, ‘it’s their body, their choice’
“My son has had autonomy since he was a toddler. As he grows, he makes as many decisions about his own body as possible. Our only limits are safety and hygiene. We often hear, ‘…But..but…but…it’s PINK!’ ‘Why don’t you just cut your hair like a boy?!’ ‘That’s for girls, you don’t want that!’ He informs them with absolute integrity, ‘No, it’s for PEOPLE!’”
‘A voice said, ‘Go home now!’ I felt sick. ‘Mom, there are 2 men at the door. They want to speak with you.’: After woman loses husband in car accident, she vows to ‘live a life that matters’
“I walked briskly. The intensity of the fear grew the closer I got to my home. ‘Where in the heck is Sean?!’ I didn’t recognize either of the men. Wearing khaki pants and blue collared shirts, they looked like they were from a country club. ‘Can I help you?’ They asked me to come outside to talk. I got defensive. ‘There’s been an accident tonight.’ The small man’s face was pale. Electricity ran through my body.”
‘Are you scared?’ she asked. Breathless, I whispered to my mom, ‘No. It’s time to rally.’ I was so close to death.’: Woman with cystic fibrosis ‘in awe’ after gifted new lungs on verge of death, ‘the kindness of a stranger saved my life!’
“The meds had stopped working – time was running out. The call came at just the right time. I remember doubling over, nauseous with the news I’d just received: ‘They have a match for lungs.’ I needed to be transported to Boston IMMEDIATELY. I crouched down by my hospital bed, struck with the magnitude of the situation. As prepared as I was, nothing could get me ready for this moment. I couldn’t catch my breath.”
‘He was going to shoot me and my family and take my son, he was going to poison me, set my house on fire.’: Abused woman finds power in fitness, ‘It gave me the ability to sleep through the night again.’
“It was the inability to say no when he wanted to have sex (I was his wife, it was my job to take care of his needs whenever he wanted). He would attack me mentally, insist I was crazy, cause panic attacks so bad I would spend hours unable to do anything but hug the toilet.”
‘Help me, mama. Pleeeease, help me!’ Covered in sweat, he escaped the doctors. That was it! I was DONE.’: Boy beats cancer 3 times, loses vision, ‘he wasn’t supposed to survive his first day’
“The doctor looked me square in the eye. ‘Brain tumor.’ WHAT?! I looked at my baby playing with Tonka trucks. ‘I’m sorry, but I think we both knew it.’ WHAT? Are you freaking kidding? No, I didn’t! I sat in the pre-op area signing consent forms. I wrote in large letters, ‘NO STUDENT OR RESIDENT IS TO TOUCH HIM.’ Never again was I going to just accept what a doctor said without question.”
‘You won’t ‘get over it.’ And you shouldn’t. My grandma still gets choked up about her angel baby.’: Woman suffers twin miscarriage, ‘I talk to our babies every day’
“I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen my grandma emotional. 50 years after she lost her baby, she sat across from her two granddaughters and bravely told the story through teary eyes. Her face was glowing, every emotion so pronounced. 50 years later, and my ferociously strong and stubborn grandma is still grieving. You and I will grieve our babies forever, too.”
‘You will never become anything,’ my doctor said. I was going stone-cold deaf. ‘What now?’: Woman loses hearing to infection, vows ‘deafness will not define me’
“As a young girl, there were signs. I literally danced to my own beat, mispronounced words. I spent years humiliated, called to stand up in front of classmates and speak the language I couldn’t hear. On one test in particular, I completely bombed the oral exam, tears streaming down. ‘I thought you didn’t want to be labeled as different,’ my teacher said. That was the final straw.”
