“For as long as I can remember, it has been the two of us. She kept up with all of her motherly duties despite being sick, fighting twice as hard because she knew she was all I had. I can never repay her.”
‘Her doctor burst in. ‘Where is she?’ He looked nervous. I wished for a second parent to defer to. But I didn’t have one.’: Daughter supports mom through terminal illness, ‘I hug her a little longer each day’
‘If you withdraw care now, it’ll be easier to say goodbye.’ That’s not how love works. The looks of pity deepened.’: Mom births baby with Hypoxic Encephalopathy, ‘We never gave up hope’
“I sped to the house and scooped up her purple lipped, shivering body, then dropped to the floor and set her on top of my chest. We had to be on our top game 24 hours a day because if we slacked, she’d die. Discussions of death were as common as, ‘Hey, I emptied the dishwasher.’”
‘We’re losing her.’ Her body was getting colder. She started coughing with a gurgling sound.’: Husband describes ‘the worst day of his life’ saying ‘goodbye’ to his beloved 30-year-old wife dying of terminal cancer
“The nurse looked right at me. I knew our time was getting short. As she started getting weaker, I picked her up and carried her to bed. The hospice nurse told me to start talking to her, and not stop. ‘I love you. I love you so much. Thank you for being in my life,’ I kept telling her over and over. I wish I said more that evening. I only made 2 calls that night.”
‘I’m so sorry I can’t take this away.’ He looked up at me with absolute perfect clarity. ‘It’s okay.’: Parents ‘astonished’ by infant son’s miraculous response, lose him days later to rare brain tumor
“We stood in astonishment. Prior to this, he’d only known how to say one word: ‘Dog.’ My wife and I leaned in to tell him we loved him. He looked up again and said, ‘I love you.’ We held his little hand, his little frail body in my arms, and begged him to visit us. I asked him to watch over his siblings. We put him in the black Suburban, and watched them drive away.”
‘I was 13 hours away with $1.32 in my account. Tears in my eyes, I gently opened the door. There was a look of shock on her face. ‘How did you get here?!’
“I wrote, ‘My mom is dying in hospice care and I feel guilty every day I’m not there sitting by her side.’ I awoke to something so unexpected. ‘Alex! Oh my god, Alex!’”
‘Then I received this email. ‘Hi there, My dad has been fighting cancer. Dad is getting weaker by the day. We have to do this as soon as possible.’
“I couldn’t keep it together to talk on the phone. This is a very difficult and dark time, but I know how you feel about love. We are throwing this plan together really fast. We don’t know how long we have.”
‘You need to go. Be out in nature.’ She took her last breath and vanished into the air. I’ll never forget those words.’: Man’s soulmate dies of cancer, travels the country with her ashes
“My wife knew being out in nature, amongst the wind and the rock, would be my medicine for grief. Two months after she passed, with a map and her ashes, I set off on a journey that would take me 12 weeks, 19,000 miles. I was on my own, but I wasn’t alone. Her urn sat in the passenger seat as she always did. Her spirit was there, guiding and comforting me.”
‘A little boy should not have to say goodbye to his partner in crime’: Terminally ill girl dies after dad’s desperate plea to save brave 4-year-old
“For those who were wishing to say goodbye, I’m so sorry. This all happened so much faster than we expected.”
‘Cancer cannot cripple love’: With wedding ‘years down the road’ teen tries on wedding dresses for sick mother in hospital to ‘share this moment together’
“Mom and I held each other while tears streamed down our cheeks as we talked about how we could never imagine living without one another. We began talking about things we still wanted to do together.”
‘It was a glorious, sunny day at the pool. I scratched and felt the lumps.’: Mom with terminal breast cancer afraid to miss the ‘little moments’ with daughter: ‘Light-up shoes, ice skates, bra straps’
“It has been 10 months since a dear doctor friend told me I had stage 4 breast cancer. I sat outside on the phone, begging her to tell me my daughter would remember me.”
