“He cheated with lots of women, without protection, one of them had an STD. I spent months trying to love a baby that had the face of the person who ruined my life. And then I had an idea – Turns out my daughter was not all him, she was a lot of me too.”
‘At 7 months pregnant, I found messages online to a dozen women, telling them he hated me, wished I was dead. He was my best friend, and had promised we could co-parent.’
‘My friends invited me for a weekend getaway. I got a few itchy bites. ‘Are you pregnant?’ ‘Maybe it’s bacterial?’ This was a disease I had never heard of. There is NO cure for it.’
“I assumed it was the flu. I drank plenty of fluids and stayed in bed. But I wasn’t getting better. I had shooting pains all the way up my spine, as if someone was sawing me open. I went back to the doctor. ‘I think it’s food poisoning.’ ‘Maybe cancer.’ ‘HIV.’ ‘Is it possible you’re pregnant?’ No.”
‘My father picked me up. After a short drive, he stopped the car and told me there was a ‘problem in our relationship.’ I had an instant sick feeling. I was 12 years old.’
“At 13, I fell into a sexually abusive relationship with a much older man. He carefully groomed me. I liked that someone showered me with affection and gifts. But there was a price to pay. He controlled my every move, he would follow my bus to school. He was obsessed.”
‘A woman had a home that was ‘perfect for a couple that isn’t together, to live together.’ 2 years from the day I moved out, we moved back in together, as a co-parenting family.’
“The first night, Onyx cried out and before I could rush to his side, Tyler was already there soothing him back to sleep. I knew in that moment that although this was unconventional, this was right for us.”
‘I didn’t know then, as he held me in his arms, that less than 5 years from that night he would be dead.’
“I didn’t know this moment would be one of the few. When our babies fell asleep, and we’d have enough energy to dance in the kitchen, suds still on my hands from the dishes as he would pull me away from the sink when his favorite song would come on.”
‘I went to church. We ate dinner as a family every night. And yet, I became an alcoholic and drug addict’
“At this point cocaine was the drug of choice, though I would take any drug offered to me, and alcohol was a constant.”
‘I’m never ever ever EVER, doing yoga again.’
“I farted. I farted at yoga. I’m a walking cliche. My pelvic floor has failed me.”
‘A real life Disney Prince’: Man’s incredible weight loss transformation after mom was in a coma
“She didn’t recognize me the first day she was back. It was a very emotional time for me.”