“My first reaction was to gag. But, it kept popping up on the screen. Every time the numbers Dude scrolled to the home page. HOMEMAKER. My blood boiled. ‘WHO the heck was this person to slap that label on me?’”
‘The accountant pulled up our info and swiveled it towards us. There it was. In bold print. Under my husband’s name and title. Mine read: HOMEMAKER.’
‘Wake up!’ My daughter was slumped on the couch. There was a gurgling sound coming from her throat. She stopped breathing.’: Mom believes daughter died from ‘cardiac arrhythmia due to caffeine toxicity’ in energy drinks
“At 5:37 p.m., my daughter, who was always so full of life, was declared dead due to cardiac arrest. The nurses moved her over so I could sit next to her in bed. I laid there, talking to her all night, without a wink of sleep. I told her how proud I was of her and how much happiness came from being her mom. I didn’t know how I could ever live again.”
‘I take him to the doctor. ‘It’s an emergency!’ I remembered someone put sliced potatoes in their child’s sock, and it helped them feel better. No runny nose, he was cured. So, I did it!’
“I’ll tell you what it DID do. It made my husband think I had lost my mind when the baby is screaming and instead of being with him, I’m in the kitchen stomping around, gathering potatoes like a farmer and trying to slice them like I’m prepping to scalloped potatoes, like a mad woman, chanting, ‘Potatoes! He needs potatoes!’”
‘That’s when he told me. This stranger, this man I’d never seen before, wanted to hold the door open for us. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to again. He shouldn’t have even been alive.’
“’I don’t take walking for granted anymore.’ Those are the powerful words he uttered to me. I’d noticed him walking along the sidewalk as we approached the glass doors, but I didn’t expect him to yell for me to wait, to beg me to allow him to hold that door for us.”
‘I shopped at Nordstrom. He had hand me downs. My mom gave me money. He received lunch through the free lunch program. I didn’t have a job until I was 19. He painted farm fences at age 10.’: Wife explains how opposites attract in their relationship
“I don’t want to raise my kids to be as spoiled as I was, and he doesn’t want to raise his kids to be as poor as he was. I’m thankful to have married a man who went through the harder side of life, so he could teach a girl from privilege what actually matters in life.”
‘I ran away and spent the entire day in agony, waiting to go home and shower. I became the girl known for never showing up and sleeping all the time.’
“I didn’t feel comfortable telling my friends about the weird things I did. I was constantly thinking about how to rid my brain of this mental contamination. I can’t just turn it off like a light switch.”
‘Oh my gosh, there’s a HEARTBEAT! A baby! I knew they were wrong! I’m a MOM! After I caught my breath, I asked the doctor, ‘Is that a heartbeat?’ He was puzzled, but didn’t look happy.’
“I couldn’t even take a breath. The embryologist said, ‘I can’t believe I’m saying this, because I have never seen this happen!’ I still couldn’t breathe. What was he about to say? At this point I’m jumping up and down screaming. I had to ask.”
‘Behind closed doors, I was called ‘crazy’ and ‘too sensitive.’ We lived like roommates that slept together. I tried leaving. He promised to change, and he did, until I got pregnant again.’
“Into my life walks a man I knew since he got sober 4 years earlier. He and his girlfriend had recently broken up. I know my kids are watching us. Our children are always watching.”
‘Oh stop! She’s scared, leave her be.’ She knew I was not ready for this. I got in my car and had many missed calls from my dad. I called him back immediately, and heard the words that would change my life.’
“As soon as I hung up the phone, I knew. I sat in my car and cried. I cried tears I didn’t know I had. I couldn’t breathe. I had to call my husband to tell him I wasn’t sure I could drive home.”
‘Yes darling, what is it?,’ she said. ‘If I told you something, will you promise me nothing would to happen to my mom, sister or dad?’: Woman overcomes PTSD to find her ‘happy ending’
“I told my grandmother everything I could remember of that night, every detail of what he told me. My whole life changed in an instant; one day I had a family, then my family became smaller. I blamed myself for what had happened. I always thought I was dirty and an awful person because of what happened.”