“That night, his mom texted me. ‘Do you know if he was using?,’ she asked. ‘I’m concerned. I texted him, but never got an answer back.’ The day before, he had come to my house.”
‘This is me the day before I overdosed on heroin. I was almost off probation, a year out of jail, and I had a job.’
After 31 Years, I Reconnected With My Mother Who Abandoned Me
“We sat in a run-down cafe talking for hours. I asked all the burning questions I had inside me since I was a 4-year-old little girl hoping and praying she could hear me. Here, she couldn’t ignore me.”
‘I get my hair colored. My natural hair color is mousy brown, I think. I can’t be fully certain. I haven’t seen it since I was 15 or so. But it’s dark. I do know that much.’
“In my heart, I am supposed to be blonde. I wear fake lashes. I own roughly 47 different shades of lipstick, so clearly, I care about the way I look. But here’s the thing. Nobody is going to stand up at the front of the church at your funeral and talk about your looks.”
‘MOM! Something is wrong with Dad, he’s on the floor!’ Only 30 minutes prior, we were laughing about the fact my husband didn’t meet us at the pool.’: Widow shares 19-year love story after losing husband to heart attack
“We assumed his game of beach volleyball with our son wore him out, and he was tired and laid down for a quick rest. Little did we know those moments after his shower, he lay on the bathroom floor of our rental house; alone.”
‘Do you understand what I am saying?’ she asked. I stared at her, trying to process. My oldest son, at 15 years old, fell suddenly ill. It began as a terrible rash on his arms and legs.’
“In the middle of those sleepless nights of waiting, worry, and prayer, I became increasingly curious about my family history. Little did I know the role it would play in my life when my son finally received a diagnosis.”
‘A teacher called our daughter ‘lazy,’ put her outside, and forgot about her. We found her in full-blown panic.’: Mom creates ‘disability buttons’ for daughter with special needs, in tears after people ‘finally talk to her’
“My daughter called me from a store parking lot crying. She’d gone to the toy aisle and picked a Barbie. As she walked through the door, the security alarm went off. She was scared and didn’t know what to do. The security person came up to her abruptly and demanded a receipt. Her mind went blank. I watched videos online about a ‘special needs girl getting handcuffed’ at Walmart.”
‘The beds around me emptied and my eyes clouded with tears. I knew something was wrong. It felt like I was giving birth. I tried to muffle my cries.’
“My world seemed to be falling upside down. Human hands felt like knives. I pushed back, knowing something was not right. The doctors and nurses were completely puzzled.”
‘Asheville?,’ he asked. I smiled. He promised it would be our next destination together. That dream died the day he did.’
“I am finally going to this special place, but he is not taking me there. Instead, I am taking him. It is there on that mountain I will let him go.”
‘The self-talk has to stop. Motherhood is not sunshine and rainbows. It’s mundane many days. I lose my patience. I screw up. I have unwashed dishes in the sink, crumbs on the floor.’
“There’s guilt. Pressure. Unrealistic expectations. How many times have you lain awake going through the to-do list of tomorrow while thinking about everything you didn’t accomplish today? All of the ‘should haves’ replaying in your mind. How are we ever going to get ahead when we are stuck in the guilt of yesterday?”
‘I woke up to his friend’s girlfriend dragging me across the garden, screaming. But why? Whatever she’d seen had terrified her.’: Woman escapes abuser to finally marry ‘amazing man’
“She dragged me to the front door and I can remember feeling panicked. Where was the key? We were locked in, slipping on the blood pouring from my face on the laminate floor.”