“I kept watching. This time, the husband, calm as could be, approached the young boy. ‘May we have our ball back?,’ he asked. I could see the shock on his face. The boy’s mother wasn’t oblivious to what was happening. She SAW it go down.”
‘May we have our ball back?,’ the mom asked. She was ignored. Second attempt. No luck. ONE more time. The boy gave her careless smirk, then went back to ignoring her.’
‘My Son’s teacher recently friended me on social media. I came upon a picture of her holding a chalkboard sign that read, ‘I said YES!’ She’s already married, so it struck me as odd.’
“Until I read the caption. I couldn’t stop crying.”
‘We felt left out of the parents’ club. It was comical how easily everybody else could have a baby. You’d look around the zoo, the grocery store, the mall. EVERY.SINGLE. PERSON has 1, 2, 3 kids.’
“You are living a cruel joke. Our insurance covered nothing! The financial aspects were flat out ridiculous and unfair. You literally throw thousands of dollars down the toilet with every unsuccessful attempt.”
‘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 girls and I were headed in. This young man jogged up behind us. ‘After you,’ he says, a big smile on his face. ‘Thank you,’ I respond, surprised, ushering my kids through the door.’
“I look back at this kid and his mom, and I’m overcome with an urge to compliment HER. Because she is obviously doing something very, very right. So I did. I looked deep in her eyes. And then coolest thing happened.”
‘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.”
‘My friends ghosted me when my mom died.’
“I didn’t see it then, I just noticed the calls became less frequent and the invites were scarce. I turned around and it was like everyone just disappeared.”
‘Are you ready to hold your daughter?’ My eyes wide open, I nodded. After delivering my triplets, hours after my first child died, you took pictures of my sweet babies.’
“The shock of staring at their translucent, 1-pound bodies, consumed me. The guilt overwhelmed me as I looked at the machines keeping my children alive. Yet, there was no judgement from you, our nurse.”
‘I love you, I’ve been shot at work.’ It took several times reading it for it to hit me it was real. I called his phone, texted, nothing. My heart dropped.’
“A lady answered and said she was barricaded in her room and police were everywhere. I grabbed my children and drove where I met a cop blocking off the roads. She couldn’t tell me anything. I drove to the nearest hospital. He wasn’t there.”
‘I lied to my husband for the last time. He found out I’d been using drugs again, took the kids and left. I was devastated. I begged him to come back, but he was done.’
“I had a miscarriage. Thus began my spiral downward. I was chasing the numbness. I would hide packets of pills around the house anywhere I could, on shelves behind clothes, in boxes, drawers, cupboards, even in my kids’ rooms – anywhere.”
