“When I was 39, I was told that I had congestive heart failure. It was a virus that got in there. It was tough to even walk across the kitchen. But over time I got stronger and stronger, and they moved me down from the … Continue readingHeart transplant allows him to keep living
(5 of 5) “I think of my sister every second that we’re out there. Every girl that we talk to, I see her. Every girl we recover, I see her. I see a part of her in all of them. And that’s her legacy. It’s … Continue readingSister’s light shines through work of Nita’s Angels
(3 of 5) “In May 2015, my sister came to me and said that she was starting an organization. She was going to call it Nita’s Angels. She wanted to help girls like herself who were being trafficked. She told me, ‘I don’t want to … Continue readingNita’s Angels fights for trafficked girls
(2 of 5) “The police knocked on my door to tell me that my sister had been murdered and that they were looking for my nephew. They didn’t say he had done it. I was devastated. All I knew was that my sister was dead … Continue readingShe fights in aftermath of sister’s death
(1 of 5) “My sister, Nita, and I grew up in an abusive home. We were both in and out of the system, she more than I. She went to the Chimney Rock in Houston when she was 14. It’s a CPS placement for adolescent … Continue readingPregnant mom’s life ends at hands of her son
“I was 26 years old. It was my first pregnancy. I was healthy. I was athletic. Then it just happened. They told me, ‘Your cervix is gone.’ I had what’s called an incompetent cervix. It can lead to premature birth or losing your baby. “They … Continue readingPoetry emerges from heartbreaking loss
“We were living in the dream home we had built for our family, when there was this rare flood. We had like 4 feet of water in our house. We were not in the 100-year flood plain, and we did not have flood insurance. So … Continue readingSurviving devastation, they come together
(4 of 4) “Everything I see and hear makes me think of Weston. It’s hard to pick out a specific memory since they are all important to me. “My husband, Chris, and Weston loved hunting together. They built a gaming PC together. Then Weston picked … Continue readingTaking care of son ‘best job I ever had’
(3 of 4) “Weston got sick all of a sudden. It happened so fast that we feel like we didn’t really get to say goodbye like if he would have been ill for a while. “He had a good checkup on a Friday, and he … Continue reading‘Missing him is such a sad thing’
“‘We have to let our hearts break.’ I heard Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., say this recently. And whoa, I felt that. For me, 2020 started in a state of grief. Just a few months prior, I lost my sweet love, Daniel, … Continue reading‘Grief is a blessing when I allow myself to sit with it’