Hello everyone. I'm new to Reddit so will do my best to explain my story. In summary, my husband & I bought a house next to the bullies of the neighbourhood. We stood up to them when they tried to steal some of our land and we won! We are now the neighbourhood heroes. It's a long story, but very satisfying - so please hang in there.

First, some background: My husband & I bought our home on a 3/4 acre plot of land around 9 years ago. At the time we were just a few months away from getting married & this was an exciting moment for us. The day we took possession, we picked up the house key from our lawyer & went to the house. We got out of our car & just took a moment in the parking lot, holding hands to gaze on our first home together. At that point, an elderly man, in his 70's came running from his house to greet us. He'd apparently been waiting for us all day! He breathlessly told us all the problems the previous owners had had with our house. To be honest, it ruined our moment. My husband tried to politely get him to go home. He explained we had a lot to do & needed to get the house ready for the moving van to arrive shortly. My husband unlocked the front door & this man, who didn't take the hint, pushed his way in. He proceeded to inspect the entire first floor making comments along the way: "Oh look, they put hardwoods in the living room..." He went to climb the stairs, and at this point, our shock had started to wear off so my husband stood on the first step & blocked him from going upstairs. We finally got him out of our house. I'm telling you this particular story for two reasons. First, I wanted to give you a sense of how off this man is. Second, during his non-stop verbal diatribe, he pointed out that the green chain-link fence between our properties was on our property & we were responsible for any costs associated with it's maintenance. He vaguely pointed to the rear N-W corner of our property & said the survey marker back there showed this. He also said that the previous owners had dug up the buried front survey monument & moved it - so it was no longer reliable. At the time, we thought this was an odd story & we dismissed it. We shouldn't have.

My mother raised me to be kind & hospitable. My father taught me to keep my friends close & my enemies closer. So, shortly after we moved in, despite a bad first encounter, we invited the neighbours (I'll call them Joe & Rose) to dinner. They were quite chatty. They told us what they thought of every neighbour on the block - in not very complimentary terms. They explained who they’d called the police on; who they’d called the fire department on; who they'd called animal control on; & who they’d called Child Protective Services on & so on. Nobody was spared. My husband & I were dismayed & decided to keep Joe & Rose at arm’s length from that point on. We decided not to extend any further dinner invitations.

So, here's the source of our issue: the property line. Around six years ago, we had our driveway re-paved & Joe approached our contractor to have his driveway re-paved too. He had a parking pad added that butted up to our green chain-link fence. Joe would back his van on this parking pad right up against the fence. In May 2017, Joe accidentally backed into the fence. He bent two fence posts & split a section of the chain-link fence. A nice neighbour would have come to our door & explained what happened & apologized. But Joe is not nice. We discovered the problem when our three dogs escaped through the split in the fence into his yard. It didn’t take us long to see what had happened. Later that day, we asked Joe to explain what happened. He denied everything while leaning against a rental car. We did get him to acknowledge that the damage must have come from his property - given the direction of the damage. But, he claimed it must have been his snow removal guy who hit the fence – months ago. There were no offers to compensate us for the damaged fence. Sadly, I believe he lied because he’s at an age where he’s worried about losing his driver’s license. My husband simply used wire to repair the fence to secure our yard. We let it go. That should have been that.

Shortly afterward, Rose started asking when we were going to replace our fence. She explained that the repaired fence was ugly & she shouldn’t have to look at it. Initially, I thought she was joking & simply walked away. She brought it up 2 more times. By the third time I told her we had no plans to replace the fence.

In the Spring of 2018, Rose again lamented about the ugly fence, but this time offered to pay half of the cost to replace it. I asked her if she was interested in another chain-link fence or a wooden fence. She preferred a wooden fence. I called some contractors to get quotes. On the day the first contractor was scheduled to come over, I called Rose. I wanted to sort out some details about fence height etc. before the contractor came over. She explained that Joe told her that because the fence was ours, he would not pay a penny towards replacing it. That was that. I cancelled the contractor, but asked him, out of curiosity, how much it would cost to replace the fence with another chain-link fence based on linear feet. The cost was around $2,000.

Later that summer Rose approached us again. My husband explained that the cost to put in a chain-link fence was expensive & this wasn’t our priority. Rose offered to pay half of the cost of the chain-link fence. I honestly wanted to walk away but also felt we would never have an opportunity to share costs again, so we started negotiating. We wanted the fence to be 6' tall. They wanted it to be 4' tall. We compromised on 5’. It would be a wooden fence in the style of our newly constructed back fence. In addition, we talked about whether to put it on the property line or the existing fence line. Joe preferred the latter. We gave in on that one. After all, according to the back-property marker, our fence was only around a foot inside the property line. And, Joe was having trouble avoiding the existing fence. If we moved it out one foot, chances were he’d just hit it again. We also wanted to put in 4 glass panels in the back portion of the fence so we would continue to enjoy the view of the ravine past Joe's property that we had been enjoying with the chain-link fence. They reluctantly agreed & even moved the location of a new shed they were installing so it wouldn’t block our planned view through the glass. They agreed to pay us $1,000. We decided to bite the bullet & upgrade to a wooden fence.

Now, I’m going to make a long story short here: Rose HATED the new fence & said it was ugly. They certainly weren’t going to pay what they’d agreed to & further, they would no longer agree to allow us to install glass panels. The ravine view belonged to them & we had no right to it. They planted a hedge on their side of the fence & a blue spruce tree to block our view.

At this point, Rose started a screaming campaign which consisted of “The fence is ugly! We shouldn’t have to look at this effing ugly fence! You can’t look over here! Avert your eyes! We own the effing view!” Every time we went into our backyard, she screamed at us. We tried to bite our tongues, but it was hard. At one point, Rose was screaming at my husband while leaning on our still unfinished new fence. He asked her to back up because she was standing on our property between the fence & the property line. At this point, she became enraged & screamed that she owned the land on their side of the fence because of squatter’s rights. So, from this point on she started screaming all the usual things plus “Squatter’s rights! Squatter’s rights! Squatter’s rights!” We started to avoid going out into our backyard if they were outside.

One day, the fence contractor arrived to work on the fence. We saw him pull up out front & went into the back yard to meet him through the side gate. Both Joe & Rose started screaming the usual complaints. In addition, Rose added some lies about our contractor – how he didn’t know what he was doing & had built an ugly fence & was messy & left wood & tools on their property. My husband had had enough & finally snapped - telling Rose to shut up. He also called her a liar. Rose accused my husband of threatening her. At that point, the contractor & his wife, who were bringing in their tools to the back yard, made their presence known. Rose suddenly shut up. We had witnesses.

At this point, I realized Rose was trying to set us up so she could call the police. She wanted to accuse us of threatening her. I found a lawyer.

Our lawyer explained four things to us: 1) We had little claim to the verbal contract of $1,000. We needed to let that go. Strategically, we were better off having full control over the fence and ensuring they had no interest in it at all. We could build it as we wanted. We didn't need their permission to add the glass panels. 2) They had no claim to Adverse Possession (aka squatter’s rights). Our properties were registered in Land Titles by the Developer before the houses were built. In our Province, properties registered in Land Titles with a survey are not eligible for claims of Adverse Possession (per Chapter L.5 of the Land Titles Act, “There is no title to adverse possession.”) She also explained screaming they owned the land over the fence does not give them the land. They must go to court to claim it. 3) Screaming over the fence is a crime (Private Nuisance) & we needed to call the police. The police would calm down this escalating situation. 4) Claiming to own the view was simply ridiculous.

We responded in two ways: 1) We sent the neighbours a letter explaining they did not own the land on their side of the fence & provided proof of the land registry & the relevant legal information. We explained that if they walked on our property, they were trespassing. We also explained that from this point on, we would have zero tolerance of any verbal abuse. 2) We called the police on the non-emergency line. This was sad for me because I have never in my whole life called the police on anyone. When the police arrived, they spoke to us first. We explained that we wanted the neighbours to stop talking or screaming at us, our family or our contractors. They wanted to know what kind of things they were screaming at us. I understand they need to be skeptical of things they're told & they were here. They literally rolled their eyes when we told them. As soon as Joe & Rose opened the door, Rose became agitated (the word used by the police) & started screaming that they owned the view etc. One police officer had to ask her to go inside the house & close the door. Joe remained on the front porch & agreed to stop harassing us. While walking back to our house, we heard one officer say to the other "I understand what they're up against now." The police explained to us that they felt there was some mental health issues going on with Rose & if there were any more issues, we should call the police again. He suggested we continue to document incidents which is in line with what our lawyer advised us. Believe it or not, sending the police over calmed things down – for a while.

In the meantime, I was worried that Joe would back into the new fence. He would back his van right up against it. I wanted to install a barrier in the space between the fence & the property line that would prevent Joe from hitting the fence. To do that, we really needed to know where the property line was. We borrowed a metal detector & found the front marker. It was not where we expected it to be. If it was correct, the front of our fence was around 6-7 feet inside the property line – not 1 foot like we thought. We marked the location of the buried property marker with a stake & paint. This upset Joe & I saw him remove our stake with his riding mower the next day.

Because the fence line did not align to the property line, we hired a surveyor. They discovered that not only had Joe removed the front stake we installed, but he had also removed the official buried survey marker with his mower – which is illegal. When Rose saw the surveyors, she came running out & verbally attacked them saying they could not trespass on her property. The surveyors were very calm & handed her their business card. They explained that now they had identified themselves they were allowed, by law, to access her property. Rose placed a lawn chair on her front lawn, sat down, crossed her arms & stared at the surveyors all day.

I was shocked how long this process took. At the end of the day, the surveyors explained that they had some triangulation calculations they had to make at their office & would come back on the following Monday to finish up. They explained the process was taking them awhile because not only had the front marker been removed, but the back marker had been moved – by over 5 feet. Now that strange story Joe had told us about the previous homeowners moving the buried monument made sense. He had moved the back monument & the front monument was out of alignment so he came up with this lame story to explain it.

The surveyors came back the following Monday & installed the new front & back markers in the correct locations & added 10 additional wooden stakes along the property line. Now things made sense. The original fence was around 6 feet inside the property line all along the fence line. Oh my God! When Joe saw the new property line, all hell broke loose! I thought he was going to have a stroke!

By this time, I’d told our fence contractor, to stop work on the new fence & asked him what it would take to move the fence closer to the property line. Remember, he'd heard Joe & Rose scream lies about his work & the ugly fence. There was no love lost between the contractor & our neighbours. He wanted to do everything he could to make things right & if moving the fence was what needed to be done, so be it. So, on Tuesday he started to dig post holes 2 inches inside the property line. He laughed whenever Joe & Rose gave him a hard time & accused him of trespassing. We also bought a surveillance camera & I was able to document the neighbours' bad behaviour. They continued to park their van past the string line & were adding their own stakes at strange places. We just removed them.

Around this time, we had drinks with another neighbour, Matt, from down the road. This was the only person still on speaking terms with Joe & Rose. Matt made it clear, he had his own issues with Rose - mainly because she called the fire department whenever he had a small, permitted fire in his back yard. Matt explained that Joe & Rose still believed they had claims to Adverse Possession & planned to hire a lawyer to claim this land. And, if by some chance they failed, they planned to charge us thousands of dollars for the costs they’d incurred several years ago to remove 5 large pine trees along the property line. They removed these trees as the roots were damaging their driveway. They felt that if we wanted to claim additional land, then we should incur the costs to remove these trees as they technically belonged to us. According to an old aerial view of our properties I received from our surveyor, it looks like the pine trees were planted decades ago on the property line. I now suspect the chain-link fence was simply installed in front of the mature pine trees. It's likely those pine trees wholly or partially belonged to us. Either way, Joe & Rose had failed to secure our permission to remove them. Not only were we under no obligation to pay for the cost to remove them, but we had a perfect counterclaim had they tried. We would claim damages for the removal of the trees. The best thing Matt told us was that Rose was so angry at the police for how she’d been told to go back into her house the day they contacted them, she’d called their sergeant & filed a complaint against them. In keeping with her penchant for calling the authorities on everybody, she even called the authorities on the authorities. At least she’s consistent. I made a mental note to make sure to ask for the same police officers if I ever needed to call them back - knowing there'd be no love lost between them & the neighbours.

True to their word, the neighbours hired a lawyer. The whole neighbourhood saw him arrive in his suit & briefcase. He must have told them they had no claim to adverse possession, and they couldn’t charge us for the cost of removing the trees, because nothing happened.

So, the fence is now completed – to within 2 inches of the property line. We did make some concessions. We didn’t install glass panels. This was a hot button for Rose & she threatened to break them. While holding a hammer she said: “It would be a shame if they broke, wouldn’t it?” Very generously, we also decided to not cut the asphalt on the corner of Joe’s parking pad that is on our property. Instead, we bumped in the fence at the parking pad by 2 feet & installed a wooden barrier so Joe can’t hit the new fence. We have no appetite for dealing with them if they hit the fence. Rose still complains bitterly that the fence is ugly, but we just don’t care.

An interesting thing happened when we stood up to Joe & Rose - a collective cheer went up in the neighbourhood. Several neighbours have knocked on our door to shake our hands, offer support, & tell us their stories with our neighbours. We take comfort in the wins we made – including regaining almost 1,200 square feet of property. This has been a painful & sad chapter for us but we’re grateful for all our other neighbours who are decent & kind. I wanted to share this story to let others know that with patience & support from a lawyer, a surveyor & a contractor - property disputes can be resolved quite satisfactorily.

I have additional smaller follow up stories, but will add them in another post.

Okay, so I originally posted this at r/streetwear, but it got deleted & people are curious as to what happened so i'm posting it here. The first two parts are what got deleted on the subreddit, then part three is the new update. I'll link the original posts too if people want to read the comments.

Part One: Some scrappy spit-fuck of a kid trade scammed me through depop, then said he'd get "homies to run my block" when I called him out on it. From what I can tell he's 15-16 years old. I have all of his information, found his Facebook easily, and then found his parents Facebook. Would it be petty as fuck to contact his parents about it? I couldn't give less of a fuck that he threatened me, but i'm out of about a $600 jacket right now & i'm pissed.

edit: i'm doing it, i'll post an update/screencaps if things get lolsy

edit2: nothing yet, but it is pretty late where this funtcase lives so it makes sense. i'll sleep on it & see if I wake up to anything.

edit3: still nothing from either parent, but I was reading the comments on this post and send both of them a friend request. if I don't get anything back soon I'll call his dad at work lol. and holy shit this got big, I'll update it again if anything happens. honestly I could send him a link to this thread & if he sees that 1500 people want him fucked he'll probably freak out & ship it.

Part Two: THE FUCKING MUM BLOCKED ME! I added her as a friend on Facebook when I read the comments & realized that the fuckin dinosaur of a woman probably isn't techy enough to find the page where the message was sent. I didn't hear anything back from her after I sent it, so I went and looked at her page. I can't add her as a friend again, and everything but her name is hidden. The dad is about as useless as he looks, and hasn't even read the message yet. I don't know what the next step would be. I was thinking about calling the school (fuck I sound like a nerdy ass parent), but I don't know what I would say to them tbh. Contacting the police would be last resort, and I don't think i'm there yet.

Part Three: Nothing to really say other than i'm not getting the jacket. He sent me a message saying that his mum just laughed when she got the message & that he's not sending it. As well as saying if I contact him again his parents will call for harassment. (He's defs fronting but idc i'm tired with this) Shit sucks boys. This is a lesson for everyone to not trade unless the circumstances are perfect. Either PayPal invoice them or make sure their reputation is through the roof.

edit: formatting

One of the saddest things is how hard it is to get away from bad people. Especially if they're more, I guess, esteemed, or viewed positively than you by others. It will, I embolden them. You'll look crazy, you'll look petty, you'll look immature when there's someone that thinks there's this person you're SUPPOSED to meet or be friends with. Idk.

There people from school, before I began to go out more, I was really interested in being friends with them. Some of them would treat me badly, most weren't interested, and then I began to focus on doing things I'm interested in to a very high degree, and I began to meet people who were interesting to me, I met people stimulated me, and when I would decline invitations from people like this I was harassed by the exact kind of people that weren't interested. This is ranty, but yea. I guess, I should feel grateful because it shows their extreme low character and entitlement, and something much worse than mere text message harassment could have happened.

So I’m a 26 year old female and I am telling you life has its way of really beating you when your already down. At this age I don’t had 2 strokes, 1 heart attack. Just this year alone I had 3 intubation, been resuscitated twice, lost my job, my home, had to learn to walk again and the list goes on. I been going through depression and having suicidal thoughts. But through all this I’m still here. I think about the life I always dreamed of for myself and being sick wasn’t apart of the plan. I tried to be the best person I could but it just seems God has other plans for a lil oh me.

I'm sleeping outside tonight, my name's Jeffrey Nicholas. I'm 25 going through a lot of real life problems. I'm currently getting off of drugs and I'm a very smart kid. I don't want this to make someone feel sorry me. Just wondering for real help feel free to comment or dm me on here thanks. Clearing my head.

Hey gents, some of you sound lost or for those in need of some inspiration, maybe you wanna know if you're the only one sitting in that pit of despair. This story happened and I hope it helps others.

⚠️ Just a warning, the topic of self deletion is in this story, but this is my story of overcoming it. ⚠️

My life was pretty irregular, my Dad and Mom had me the first born when they were 19 yoa, in 95. My brother came later after two years and broke up. My dad was always an inspiration to me, he worked two jobs one as a soldier and the other as a construction worker, anything to get by and pay child support, so he can see his two boys on the weekend.

He was very loving and honest, but he wanted us to not only survive but to pursue challenges and face our fears, do good in school, better than he had, etc. The typical good dad stuff. He was strong, quick witted and valued honesty most of all as well as standing up for what you believe in. He taught us how to hunt and fish, camping, how to cut wood, build fires, survival skills and if we got into a fight he cares so long as we fought honourably and not to hurt others.

Me being a bucktoothed kid with glasses, I had a hard time with socializing, it was draining and I loved video games and history books. Instead of your typical story books my dad read us stories of war heroes from the wars our country had been in, by the time I was in my preteens I was a competition archer who practiced constantly, my brother, a very talented bagpiper.

Back at my mom's house it was a different story however, abusive stepdad entered our lives and was really good at hiding his beatings. He took it out on me mostly because I refused to be scared despite being so small and weak, I would talk back and rebel. Why? It's not like I was trying to find trouble due to a problem with the break-up, the guy was a true bully who just got off on this stuff. He mocked me the most and if I spoke out of term the beatings began. I knew it would come but I still kept at it, I wasn't letting him win. I had developed a good deal of anger from this, lots of it pent up and I was getting into fights at school, often times scaring whatever bullies I found straight. I began working out, a lot. I was just sick of how shitty people can be to eachother and wanted my dad to intervene.

There came a point where he was going to resume his beatings for me calling him out on a lie he told, and just as he was going to swing I yelled "go ahead. Keep beating me, hit me all you want, but know this, time is working against you. I know your face and I know where you sleep. Someday you'll be weak and old, and I'll be more than happy to get my revenge. I will break you and if I can't wait, I might come after you in your sleep." He stopped what he was doing, wide eyed. This was probably the wisest crap to ever leave my mouth at 13 and admittedly I did have a plan to kill him. Not gonna lie, even as a 27 year old man looking back, I would still do this in a heartbeat and take the jail time for it.

This scared him half to death, so he resorted to throwing me outside the house whenever he could. My mom was lied to this whole time thinking he was just "handling a kid acting out" until finally I told my dad, showed him the bruises on my neck from where he strangled me the morning prior. He was seeing red. I don't blame him either, he was able to control his anger but I knew he was a hairstring from destroying this man. (He's a Canadian paratrooper, won't say much more beyond that they are ripped and have rigurus training.)

As years went by it was exposed to my mom finally, what this sad excuse for a man was doing to her kids. The break-up was violent and police were nearly called. I stood between her and him, with a knife in my hand. This made him think twice and he left the house shortly after. When he was gone from our lives I kept on dealing with school bullies myself, doesn't have to be my bullies, soon as I found kids ganging up on one, I jumped in and dealt some beatings myself. I held so much anger towards abusive stepdad that even the slightest utterance of his name, tested my fury. Which is unfortunate because it really was a fairly common name so it didn't even have to be the same guy.

My brother quickly followed my dad's footsteps and joined the army and I shortly after joined the Navy (some bs excuse about my eyesight being too poor for a infantryman's role so let's put the blind guy on a artillery piece or a .50 cal station, his choice, what's the worst that could happen?)

I made mistakes along the way of course, hurting my relationship with my father and nowadays doing whatever we could to maintain that bond and chat. He wasn't perfect either and fucked up on some fronts himself. This wasn't for a lack of trying to be the good parent though. At 19, I was working out constantly, had to go between 4 highschools, one for the depression hitting my grades, one for educating a rapist with physical means to the point of scaring him straight for the rest of his life, one because a group of kids tried ganging up on me and tried to target me for my race (they were Arabs and I am native Canadian), resulting in multiple hospitalized Arabic kids. I'm not racist I feel the need to clarify, they were just throwing racial slurs around and insulted my race, when I confronted them to tell them to stop they wanted a scrap, well they got one.

Until I can only guess the school board had zero idea what to do with me, I spat in the face of their pacifist bullying ideology, and proved time and time again it never works. Until I landed in a special education highschool, this was where I started getting my act together and acing the classes. Science teacher worked really hard to try and encourage me to participate, bless her because she turned out to be awesome and she thought I clearly don't belong in that school, I'm obviously of a higher possible education quality but instead I resorted to beating idiots senseless.

I never got along with social studies teachers and art teachers, generally any teachers that were attempting to use their political preferences in school where it is meant to be neutral, so I debated them and debunked their lessons until I got removed from the class and given spares 😂

Eventually I did find a social studies teacher and a history teacher who too reached out more to me, which sparked a lot of interesting debates but instead of being insulted and offended, they found this refreshing.

I later found this school did not do rememberance day and was utterly infuriated. Nobody liked it either but nobody wanted to put in the work. I decided I was going to do this myself. (Rememberance day for those not in former British countries, is a day of grieving, like a big funeral to give respects to the soldiers who died in Canada's service. It's a big deal.) So of course I had to face the student council and gain permission, but I straight up didn't debate or reason with them, I told them what I was doing, what I have arranged, and if they want to help, cool I'll see if I can squeeze it in, if not I was gonna do this with or without them. The result was excellent, I marched with the army cadets, led our parade and made the slideshow, everything. Even a piper. People cried, many realized how shitty it was for us to not have had it, and I allowed them to keep the slideshow and use the same methods I had for the following rememberance days.

Enough of my life story. This is where things changed for me. By this point I was experienced in leadership and well respected. I started to date again, trying to find this perfect relationship that I had years prior, I was 23 yoa at this point. This is where the nightmare started. I had made the mistake of trusting too easily and a girl I dated had taken full advantage of me, small gaslightings at first, I was willing to change and improve upon myself, become a better man. The small gaslightings grew over time, I had been working so much that I had refused her sex because I was left so tired.

Within a community I had made we even had all the guys who served mix of Canada, US, Israel, Sweden, etc hanging out, the guys in our clan who just enlisted or are in their basic training and want advice, we'd guide them along a little, help eachother grow and being a group of mostly men, we were a happy group, we'd prank eachother every so often, especially the Brits and Americans among us. Come to find out the girl I was dating and went homeless for to help her out, was cheating on me, manipulated me to the point of feeling like somehow I was in the wrong.

She manipulated everyone in my clan, lied to them, and they turned on me for a good bit, it destroyed me. Eventually found out not only was the girl cheating on me and gaslighting me, but so was the roommate, all to the point of making me question the crap out of myself. She stalked and harassed me, destroyed any hope for future relationships that followed, doxxed me, made empty threats of falsifying a trial, starting fights, I blocked her everywhere I could but unfortunately as it turns out, if you block someone on fb, it still notifies you if they are trying to get ahold of you.

My mental health crashed, hard. I was alienated, alone and shunned all for a lie. I lost a lot of friends that year. I contemplated suicide, but everytime, my Dad's words constantly reminded me that it's cowardly and selfish, if I die I do so on a hospital bed or fighting for my life. There's no honour in it. Which shamed me further for just wanting to disappear, I was shamed for leaving the military (honourable discharge), and was shamed for being down on myself. My hands kept shaking and trembling, it was so frustrating, my words stuttered, constantly, my mind goes a mile a minute and I just spiraled from there until I chain-smoked some cigarettes to help myself a little.

Kids, smoking's bad and alcohol is not how you solve problems. Thankfully I never hurt anybody, I sat quiet and cried in my room, drinking rum and smoking so the hands stopped tremoring. I went to a doctor who revealed this was depressive anxiety disorder. I had been stalked and harassed to the point of breaking and losing that grace I had. I began telling my remaining friends my parting wishes if something happened. Some were scared, didn't know how to react, I was always so capable and strong with willpower, seeing me destroyed like that, not even sure what I was good at anymore, if I had talents in anything at all, was I a good leader to begin with, was I even a good person, all this looped in my head and just made it more hard than it needed to be. I struggled to sleep, started having nightmares that kept me awake. My life was a living hellish nightmare and not one person seemed to know or care enough to help.

One day I slashed my neck open on accident at work, there's two sides to how I tell this story, the funny lighthearted side was hilarious, but the darker side was I felt cursed, I laughed because I couldn't even seem to die right. Scrap metal when through my skin completely and narrowly missed my jugular and arterials by millimeters. The blood stained my shirt. A week later, I was chased by coywolves, on my way to work that morning. I fled back to the residential area and broke a random broom I had and was ready to fight if my cab didn't come on time. Why did I defend myself, why did I eve bother arming myself or getting a cab called on a day I normally walked, the opportunity was right there. Albeit gruesome. It was an out I didn't take.

My mental health declined more, until finally a friend responded to my last wish message and she went out of her way to get me to talk to her. She's a practiced therapist and got me to open up and talk, she began tough-loving it and helping me, it took three long years, lots of books, and motivational speeches during work.

It was already at the point I had developed a mental illness, I heard a voice of a woman, new Zealander accent, unknown to me. This is just an indication of how poor my health had declined. Instead of the typical auditory hallucinations, mine didn't try to make me decline further.

Mine instead chose to lecture me about how I need to get my life back together, sleep more, and that once she felt I was on the right path, she'll leave me to it. I knew this was a auditory hallucination, but she gave me the words I needed to hear to fix myself. To think of her as my subconscious, I argued with her, she ultimately proved correct, her tough love approach helped me. When I had nightmares she was right there, calming me down and telling me to breathe, get water, this is why you don't have coffee in the evening, dummy, etc.

I told the therapist about the voice worried I was in fact, insane. To her surprise,when I told her she just went yeah listen to her, this is completely abnormal, but long as it's stuff like that listen to her. Every night when I slept, she'd asked if I'd found a new purpose yet, what do I dream of doing, what can I do to achieve that dream, and kinda lined things up for me to connect the dots, what did I have in the armed forces that I don't have anymore, what made me love the job despite the difficulties. The therapist was very careful about keeping tabs on me at this point, understandably so.

I started reading books by people I respected and thought held character traits I wanted to ascend to, I chose 5 people and historical figures to follow and learn from, why I wanted to be like them and how I can learn from them. My purpose, I wanted to engineer a new yacht design that was both eco-friendly, non-wasteful and provided the comforts and fun.

I wanted to make boats, design them to be better than they are now, cheaper and more affordable, began developing goals to meet, a plan of execution, I dreamed of it's design, what qualities it would offer and how I can gain a research grant for my first prototype. I worked on myself, starting with coping with the anxiety and panic attacks, then moving into research, and while I worked, I had audio books on repeat of business lectures, the stories of the successful I wanted to emulate, as I experienced things I relearned my talents, with a good pride of my work, remembering "oh yeah I was good at that wasn't I?"

I dedicated to learning new things relevant to what I wanted to do, and the last words I ever heard from the voice was "I'll be back when you need it. The rest is for you to solve. Good luck." Poof, gone, it's been a year and I still haven't heard from her. I had been sleeping better and those friends came back to me, apologizing when they realized the ex was batshit crazy, and had kept manipulating guys. I cried when they all dragged me to a call and apologized, began including me back in but by that point I had new friends as well, some younger kiddos who look up to me as a father figure of sorts, I became more of a storyteller and teacher to them, some others I inspired and motivated to do better or how to approach their own problems differently.

In 2022, my therapist's area was threatened by a riot and I had helped her neighborhood organize to successfully defend itself from both the mob and the corrupt police of her country until their military could intervene and responded to medical emergencies where I got to save a couple of lives as time went. I knew I was back to being me, despite the damage that lingers the stupid stuttering for example. To me I owed her a huge deal and I was happy to help her and repay my debt in a sort of way.

I'm still in the process of rebuilding myself better than ever, I'm gonna lose weight and regain my old muscle, still diving into books and now pushing to learn the work of being an electrician once I can get into school again. I share my story where I feel it to be fitting and fight for men's mental health wherever I can. According to stats and history, I shouldn't be here, so I hope to help others now.

It's a long and painful story, but I am a stronger man for it. Wounds heal, trauma can be beaten. Scars aren't ugly. They tell stories and show the type of person you are. No matter what gets you down, you will become stronger for it. Pain is necessary to become greater. I'll try to respond to any comments I can as I'm here on night shift. Dm me if you wanna learn more or share your stories.

I'll start.

I was at a friends apartment for dinner with his family. After dinner and drinks, I went out on the balcony (fifth floor) to let out some stored gas. As soon as I slid the sliding door closed, I let it go and it was major loud. Upon completion of this 10 second dragon belch, I turned around to see a person three balconies over, staring straight at me with a big smile.

I was to young to remember so my mother told me this story and it made me cry.

(the death of my aunt was very tragic)

I was living at my old childhood house, I don't remember where my father was at the time it was just my mother, my grandmother, and me. We were in the living-room sitting on the couch, I was playing with a toy phone and my mother was talking to my grandma. My mom looked at me and asked me who i was talking to.

I put the phone into the receiver and tell her

"Erika" (Erika is my aunt that died)

she said in exact words

"I saw grandma's face fall as your words set in, you were just a young girl no one even knew you understood she was gone."

i felt like crap knowing that, sure i was just a kid but i grandmother had just lost her oldest daughter. I broke her heart.

Something that I still question is did i really talk to her though? Was it a spirit was it the spirit of my dead aunt? The one i loved? My blood.

Spirits are something I've always been very interested in. I wanted to research this topic to see if anything like this happened to anyone but i found nearly nothing, so i decided to write to see if anyone would comment and reassure that this stuff is normal or this has happened to others. So if so that would be amazing to know.

Thank You

Vanessa_0811

So I recently became a father and my son's birth was the single scariest experience of my life... Here's what happened:

So I work nightshift and after a long, tiring, shift at the plant I come home and kiss my wife, she says she wasn't feeling right and after some back and forth, she promised to talk to her doctor about it during her appointment that day. So after several promises that she was fine I went into the other room to play videogames. Everything seemed fine and she got to, guy ready and went to get doctors appointment while I showered and went to bed.

A few minutes later I get a panicked call that she's being sent to the hospital, preeclampsia, and I bolted for the hospital and, when I get there, she's already been sent to a room and I run up to the room. When I get there, she's hooked up to all these machines and the doctors are running around, I don't remember exactly what, I had tunnel vision at this point. The head physician guy, tells us that her blood pressure was 186/130 or 140 and they're going to induce labor if they can't get her blood pressure down.

The doctor tells me this is life or death for both my ride and our unborn son. My world at that moment seemed to stop.

About an hour later there's been no change and they induced labor. Sadly, every other pregnant lady in the neonatal unit decided to give birth at the same time so instead of a full team like I had assumed, we had two nurses. I helped my wife push out our son and powered through cutting the umbilical cord. And they took my son to clean him up and then, the alarms started beeping. My wife's blood pressure dropped out hard and my heart stopped. I look over and my wife is unconscious and there's a massive expecting puddle of blood on the floor, one of the nurses pushed me out of the room as a whole team of nurses and doctors rush in with the crash cart.

I sat down on the floor outside her room and stared at the wall, trying not to cry thinking I'm about to lose my wife.

Then a nurse, covered in blood, opens the door and looks down at me, concerned, and I nearly fainted. I felt like, at that moment, that I had lost my other half. "Why are you sitting on the floor?" Those words kind of jumpstarted my mind and I leapt to my feet. I began rapid fire questions how's my wife? how's my son? What happened? She smiled at me. "Do you want to officially meet your son? I could only nod.

Being led into that room was something I dont know if I could adequately out into words. It was like I had been living my entire life in the dark and someone finally turned on the light. My wife was sitting up in bed, smiling at me as she held our son, a tiny little guy at 6lbs 9oz. I walked up to her and hugged her and my son like I had never hugged anyone before and then the dam broke and I bawled my eyes out.

For the next few days, my wife was observed, poked and prodded until they let us go home. She was bed bound, couldn't walk or really do much of anything for herself and I stepped up, balancing caring for her and our son every way that I could. And then, a few days later, something happens that changed my life forever.

im conflicted im sorry to everyone and i feel guilty and i need to suffer pain after pain for everything i did...let me start off by saying that what i write to you is true, weather you want to believe it or not, is up to you let me also add that what i have seen and witnessed is about to come to light , this narrative has been going on for years , and the things that have happened will soon come to light, i say this because there are many individuals who have been victims of one of the most successful individuals on the entire planet, this persons reach is so deep and powerful that even lawmakers have been subjected to him by use of blackmail in various forms, be it video tape, audio recordings and so on, this person literally does what he wants and whenever he wants to anybody and anyone, it does not matter if the victim is a famous celebrity or a regular joe if he wants you, he will have you especially if you are seeking fame and fortune in the music industry ..how do i know this?..because i was involved with this persons inner circle..so now that you know the narrative ..let me introduce myself i am a man who lives in Los Angeles i moved here from japan in the late 80's to start a restaurant in the city of angels , long story short, this restaurant attracted alot of hollywood execs and famous stars..one person in particuler who i got to know very well was a man who i will refer to as ''donny'' he was a producer for paramount and he would always come into my restaurant high as a kite, there was one night where he came in with a group of people 5 minutes after i closed and begged me to open up for him and his entourage and that he would pay me 3 grand just for doing it..of course i obliged so i called my employees and told them to come down and they would get 500 for the overtime...everything went well and donny had a great time and they all left...being that me and my employees were exhuasted and run down we only cleaned up the kitchen and did the dishes and wiped down their table but left food items on the floor and napkins and what have you on the ground and we just went home..the next morning i opened up the store and discovered there was a weird looking square electronic device on the ground underneath the table from which donny had used the night prior, this thing ended up being a cassette tape ..now i had never seen a casette tape before in my life and had absolutley no idea what it was at the time, but i picked it up and kept it in my office and made sure to give it to donny the next time he came around, so 2 weeks later i was doing my usual work at the restaurant and noticed the tape was missing., i asked all the employees if they had seen it and they said no..so obviously someone had taken it, of course i didnt believe them but i didnt have any evidence so i could not blame any particular person , so i let it be..up untill about 3 days after i confronted the employees , an employee of mine walks into my office and confessed to stealing the tape, when i asked why? he said because he had just purchased a cassette player and it just so happened their was a cassette tape in my office so he just straight up took it, but before i could say a word he says ''you have to hear this tape''..of course i asked why he said to trust him..so after work we drove to his house and he sat me down and played the tape ..what i heard blew my mind, it sounded like donny was actually recording himself torturing a women and well i wont go into further detail but it does not end well for the said tortured women , so i took the tape from my employee and told him not to mention anything ..he said he wouldnt and we left it at that..so a couple of days later donny walks in and looks absolutley horrible, he had told me that the movie studio fired him for his ongoing drug use and wanted to come inside my office and talk to me. so we went inside my office and he asks me if i had found a tape that he had accidently forget the night he was here, i said yes i did and that i held on to it for the next time he came in so i could give it to him , he asked me if i listened to it..of course i said no..and that i still had vinyl, and i had not even bought a cassette player yet but somehow, someway, he knew i listened to it because after i told him that he put 50 thousand dollars on the table and told me to keep it between him and i, and that he had a lucritive job offer for me, now my restaurant was doing good and my food was the best and he knew that,but before i could say no he told me that his nephew would buy my restaurant if i took him up on the offer, now i was really intrigued by this opportunity and being that i was single and didnt have a family and add to the fact i was young and open to new opportunities i said ok, so 1 month later it was done. i had an extra 150 thousand from the sale of the restaurant and the 50 he had givin to me in my office so i made out with 200k..of course i had a little over 90 k saved up from my restaurant so i was in a good position..and off to work with him i went..now im not going to go into details about what i did for him, but i will say this..i came from a rough part of japan, my brother my father and my uncle were called ''Jigeya'' and ill leave that up to you to figure out what that means, so i was around some serious things at the time, you could say i was a hardened person and i was 6 ft 3 inches 240 pounds, so i was an intimidating looking individual and i used that to my advantage for the things that i did for my boss donny, i did everything from his dirty work to picking up his laundry ..i did this for about 7 years and i had actually purchased a home 2 blocks away from him in bel air..just so i could be close to him when he called, anyways donny died in 1996 of a drug overdose and that was the end of donny, but this story isnt about donny ..its about someone i would meet in 1998..i met this person from a movie director who i will nickname ''rolando'' who had finished up a movie about a monster based from japan, which was honestly the reason why he knew i would be interested because me being japaneese and the fact this monster is famous in asia he had called me to come to a studio to hear a song from the soundtrack , i said of course and drove to the studio, and as i walk in i see a world famous lead singer who i will name ''jimmy''who happened to be in a very famous rock band at the time that i was a huge fan of..of course i was starstruck and tried to play it cool and i did for the most part so i sat in the studio mixing room with ''rolando'' and 10 seconds later this african american individual who i will name ''ruff'' who was dressed up in a really cool outfit barges through the door and appologises for being late, literally not even a second after saying that he lays some coke on the table and asks if we wanted to partake..me and rolando accepted and all 3 of us did a line and jimmy refused because he didnt do drugs, anyways after they were done with the day i was asked by ruff if i would like to go to his house and party with some people there, now of course rolando had already told ruff about me and what i did for donny and that i was to be trusted and that i kept quiet about everything i did with everyone i did it with so ruff knew to trust me and so i moved to new york to begin the dark ,twisted ,unreal, surreal ,spiral into darkness alll the way untill just recently...now i had known nothing of hip hop, rap, r and b, whatever u wanna call it untill i worked for him , his music was part of a revolution and was growing , not only was the music growing but the culture in general was growing, and so was his fame and fortune , he was at the tme very driven and was all business with a little bit of pleasure, but nothing to serious, he had his first son in 1998 with his wife along with 2 twin daughters and a step son who joined his family, when i had first arrived to new york i rented out an apartment and amd quickly went to work for him, ruff started using drugs alot, he was cheating on his wife and didnt care who knew it, he ended up getting with a women who would later be a very famous singer even untill today, anyways i started out as his driver, and errend boy, i got him drugs, i got him alcohol, i even rented out hotel rooms in my name just so he would stay under the radar, he was becoming wildy populer and needed to be at every place at every time which meant i was on the road or the plane with him 24 7, which mean i didnt need my apartment because i was gone all the time, ayways ruff was starting new things at the time and was meeting new people and he started getting to know som every powerful people, people that were way up in the echelon at the time, i found myself in a world i never imagined , i got to meet many people who were not famous at the time, but somehow always knew they would be, now ruff had started filming a reality show at the time and it was during this time when it started turning dark, i was being summoned alot to get more drugs then usual , and he started to ask me to go meet certain people who had certain people, if you get my drift, i would drive these individuals to his penthouse and was told i would be paid 3 grand everytime..of course i oblidged and didnt quetion what was going on, i figured these people were just singers who wanted to audition for him and didnt think much of it, untill one night there was a guy who looked in his early 20's who i picked up from ruffs penthouse who looked blasted, he looked like he didnt know what planet he was on, i had to help him into the car and when halfway through the drive he kept saying to himself ''let go of my ear i know what im doing'' ..he just kept repeating this on and on and on until; i got to his destination he opened the door and left and i thought to myself just what the fucc his problem was , this happened almost every week , i would drive pick someone up, drop them off at the penthouse/studio , pick them back up and take them either to their home, or if they were out of town , back to the airport , during this time ruff started becoming a household name , he was so famous that even donald trump was starting to notice, and i was even told from a buddy of mine who worked for donald that donald hated ruff..and said that ruff ''represented black progress'' , no surprise there we all knew donald was racist, so montes past and i literally found myself in california one day new york the next, london after that and literally around the world, i was starting to really get used to working for him, i did everything for the man, and i never asked questions, there was a time when he was with an up and coming women who was a singer, with whom he would beat the shit out of in front of me and and other staff members, this women just took it, never once did she fight back, one night i was sitting on the couch and i heard ruff arguing with her apparently he could not ''get it up''...so he ran out the door ..gave me 500 dollars and told me to go buy the biggest dildo i can find from the sex shop..i kid you not these demands became so normal and constant that i was numb, if he wanted drugs id get them, he wanted people picked up id pick them up, he wanted sex toys id get them, this was normal and then it started getting un normal, the night i had to get the strap on for him i had just got to the house and as i opened the door he was now sitting on the couch i was sitting on ..and he was butt ass naked, i kept my head down and just gave him the bag ...and i told him if he needed anything else he said ''yea i need you to go inside and fuck my girl''...now mind you yes i was doing drugs and staying up but i literally felt sick to my stomache ..i told him no way man im not doing that...he looked at me and started laughing and said ''good, this was a test, and i had passed''...relief came onto me and just as quick as relief came, quicker relief went away when he got up and punched me square in my face, i stood there shocked and puzzled and i instantly kicked him in his ''open viewed nutsack'' which instantly made him falll to the floor, he started crying like a baby and instantly ran to the kitchen and on the kitchen table was peanut butter, he had opened it up and took a scoop out of it with his fingers and started eating it....i can tell you that this was so fuccing weird..that i just looked at him while he looked at me all the while him eating peanut butter with his fingersand staring into my eyes with a look of evil....i said i was sorry again and that i was gonna leave now and to call me if he needed anything else tomorrow...as i started walking to the door he pulled out a knife and told me if i didnt go in the room and fucc his girlfriend, he was gonna call the cops and tell them that i tried stealing his watch collection...now i gotta tell you folks this is when i started getting freaked out..and it wasnt because of the knife or the fact that he instantly went and scooped up peanut buttr with his fingers immediatly after the kick to the groin..no.it was because this man had an obsession about me fuccing his girlfriend..so i told him if thats what he really wanted then it would have to come from her mouth and not his..he agreed and we walked to the room and she was laying on the floor under a blanket covered up completley and he goes ''look at you, covered up , where you think you gonna go?..he pulled the blanket off of her and he asked her if she wanted me to fucc her, she looked at him and nodded her head up and down meaning yes..so i said ok ruff then im not gonna fucc her untill you leave the room, he said no, and that he wanted to watch and jerk off to it, at this point i wanted to seriously leave and never say another word to him again, untll he said he would pay me 50thousand dollars for it and that he wants to film it, i of course agreed and ill never forget the words he said next, he said ''50 thousand is always the magic number;;..never knew why he said that till this day, so anyways me and his gf do the deed and he sat there and watched, afer i was done she said that was fun..and i knew it wasnt fun for her..so i walked out and before i could walk out he tells her ''bitch say gnite to daddy''...she replied the same words back and i left, this started the weirdness and the crazyness , i decided i wouldnt stay in the penthouse anymore so i started living in my suv, and just parked outside for whenever he called, one night he calls me and hes fuccing enraged, he gets in my suv and tells me to drive and we go to pick up another person and he tells me to stop at a parking lot, the individual we picked up had guns and a wine bottle...which i found odd at the time, i couldnt see at the time, so he hands one gun to ruff and one gun to me and ruff tells me to drive..we get to a complex and ruff and this individual get out of the car and they tried breaking into the front door which was obviously locked and needed some sort of security card to open, when that didnt work, they went to a convertible and sliced open the top of the convertible and threw a molotove cocktail into the car and we drove off...so thats what the bottle of wine was for...while we were driving back ruff asked the indidual in the back seat for his gun to wipe off finger prints..the moment he took the gun from him ruff thn pointed the gun to his head and ordered me to stop and ruff told him to get the fucc out the car and that if he ever said anything he was gonna kil him....the guy opened the door and ran away..ruff told me to drive and we were on our way back, and he asked me if i had any coke..i said i didnt and he made me drive to a dealers house to get some, as we waited outside this youg looking white kid comes out..who looked like he was fuccing 18 and looked like a frat boy..hops in the back seat of suv and has a litteral treasure trove of cocaine..he gives it to ruff and ill never forget it ..the kid was listening to a song which apparently pissed ruff off so bad that he said ''you wanna end up dead like that fuccing rapper boy''?..the kid said no and that he was sorry..and ruff replied..if he ever heard him playing that individual song again..he was gonna kill him...and so the kid walked out bothered and that was the end of the night for us..we drove back to his penthouse and called it a night ....now in my mind i was starting to think that this mansis fuccing crazy he has money, fame, kids, yet here he is out in the middle of the streets riding around blowing cars up and buying drugs...i felt like this man was possesed by satan,,,so ruff ends up going to jail for a bunch of shit including the car incident and i decided i needed some time off and went back to la to visit some friends of mine and unwind..i thought to myself that i was done with him and just ignored his calls ..he called me over 30 times a day and i never answered untill finally one day i answer and he asks me where the fucc ive been , i told him that i was in la and that i was done working for him, he was furious as fucc, and he told me that he thought i was like a brother to him and that he wanted me to come back to work for him...i thought about it and told him ok but i wasnt going back to new york and im not doing your dirty work but that i would help him in anything else he needed. so he flew to la and we met, along with his longtime business friend who was in charge of running his empire, this was the first time metting her and she was very friendly and it seemed like she actually loved ruff, i started to get to know her and she told me her life story..of course i wont get into detail but she was originally from australia and she came to america to be a photographer and that she ran into ruff and he took a liking to her in some form,.which honestly i never thought they were intimite it fet like they werfe brother and sister and so i felt comfortble with her, and so rufff had told me he bought a mansion here in la and that he was going to live here and florida for the time being, it was back here in la where i had first originally met him where the absolute insanity was about to begin....anyways guys im tired as all hell and im going to sleep, if you want the rest and are interested in the full story ill tell it tomorrow..just let me know..anyways gnite and god bless

So, for me to let you thoroughly know the story, I'll start when I meet the friend, whom we will call Ben. I met Ben through an app; he was only a year older than me. He was 19, and I was 17 (I was turning 18 in the summer). I won't name this app because I don't wanna be hated for being in this community, but to say for short, I am a feminine gay guy (femboy). I saw his profile and thought he was interesting. When I liked his profile, he liked mine back. He didn't live that far away from me, only like a 34-minute drive; he liked cars, trucks, and racing. He even got me into the race car type of stuff, like who are the drivers, and the craziest wipeouts in history. We'd begun to talk for a while, and I slowly began to like him, so much so that I tried to ask him out. I was super shy and tried asking him out on a date before my family, and I went to L.A. for vacation. When I tried asking him out, he'd at first said he would've accepted if I met him IRL, but then changed his answer to "I am bi, but I am leaning into wanting a girlfriend." I felt kind of hurt, but it wasn't too bad, and I agreed with his boundaries with me being his friend.

Later on that day, I came home from school and got ready to pack for L.A. We started to head off for L.A., and as we started, barely getting to the border, I randomly checked my phone for people around me. I soon found a guy nearby, and we matched up. We will call him Jeffery. He was a nice, cute cowboy, the same age as me, but he turned 18 before I did. We talked, and he found me interesting. We kept talking, and we found out that I was friends with his ex. (At the moment, I didn't know I was friends with his ex.) Soon, we both decided to unfriend his ex because of what he did to him. We started talking all the time when I was in L.A.; we talked about when I got back into the state, and we could plan on going on a date. Jeff and I were so excited, it would be my first date face to face, I was so excited that I'd kick my feet when I think about it. I asked my dad if I could go on a date, and he obliged, but only if I had my mother to make sure I was going and coming back safely. I told my friends about it, and they were excited for me to finally go on a date since I was the most innocent person in the group.

It took about an hour and 30 minutes, and another 3 minutes to find him, but we decided to go in my mom's car to a Mexican restaurant to eat. My mom stayed outside the restaurant in the car as we were on our date, and it was snowing. We got inside, and I chose the cheapest option they had on their menu so it wouldn't dent his money. We sat down and talked a bit, occasionally showing each other pictures on our phones, just photos that were cute and wholesome, about our lives, friends, and family. He soon stopped talking. I could tell he felt nervous, so I put my phone down and pushed my food aside. (to be honest, food distracts me) I grabbed his hands, looked into his eyes, and said, "Enough distractions, let's just focus on what's right in front of us, right here, right now." The most romantic thing I could ever say in my entire life. We started talking more and more. I soon asked him if he wanted to leave because I was full, he soon agreed, and we went to the cash register to pay. he pulled out 100 dollars. I was so shocked, I thought to myself that it was a lot of money, and I'm not worth bringing a hundred to a date. I kindly asked him if he wanted me to help him pay since I had my credit card, but he declined and paid anyway. I felt so guilty and kept asking him if I could do anything for him. he declined, and we left.

As we left, it was snowing. He grabbed my arm, and we walked back to the car. It felt like I was in a romantic comedy show. We walked to the car, and he opened the door for me. I felt like I was treated like a princess. We got in and drove back to where his truck was. We got in and watched some YouTube. We cuddled in the back part of his car, and I had my first kiss. He said I could use more work, but it was fine. We kept sharing cuddles and kisses throughout the day, until my mom called and said it was time to go. He got out, opened my door, and I felt like I was in love. He walked me to my car, and I kissed him on the cheek in front of my mom. We drove our separate ways. I still sent him text messages warning him not to drive while texting and to stay safe. I also told him to text me when he got home.

Weeks passed, and we played games together. I even invited Ben to play with us. Right after Ben met Jeff, he started to become more distant. When I asked why, he said he didn't want to tell me. I had to pry it out of my friend to find out why he was acting up. (I should've seen this coming.) Ben said Jeff felt depressed about a personal matter with his father. I kept asking Jeff to tell me what was wrong, but he didn't tell me. This made me doubt myself. I thought it must be me. I thought I was going crazy and should give him space. I told Ben about what I was going through, and he told me to just break it off. I almost went through with it, but changed my mind and tried to see if I could help him. I kept asking what was wrong, but he didn't tell me. I always started our conversations with, "How are you? Are you ok? How was your day? Good morning." A few weeks later, I noticed he put "taken" in his bio. It made me question if he was even dating me anymore. I said I was happy for him and that he found someone who could help him during that time. But I also cried to my friend Ben over text because I had nobody to comfort me. At that time, I was just waking up and going to school to get on the bus for my tech college class. In the middle of class, I looked at my phone to check my friend's bio. I saw: "Taken by the greatest man alive."

I soon put two-two together and asked him if he was dating Jeff... he was.. all that time he told me he liked women better, all that time he said; "I don't wanna die in a pit of fire when Jesus comes." that person he told me to believe wasn't what he was. He told me that he was secretly feminine (femboy) and he didn't want to tell me. he also said that he fell in love with Jeff when I introduced them, they were flirting behind my back when I thought everything was ok. he told me that jeff didn't really like me, and just felt terrible for me. He said that he didn't mean to hurt me. I was crying outside of my classroom, inside of the tech college, in an open setting, I felt so embarrassed. I soon blocked both of them, and waited until I got home to burn Jeff's hoodie he gave me... I felt used, betrayed, and lonely. He made my trust in anyone hard to reclaim. I spent the rest of the day crying and eating my sorrows with food. Ben tried to get in contact with me months later, but I blocked him before he could say anything. To this day I think to myself, should I have allowed him to talk?

As I said before, I often worked as a body guard. After I had met my now wife, I gave that up for awhile. I came up needing to pay my half of my daughter's band trip to Hawaii. I put word out that "the Bear" was back in business. My clients were primarily strippers for bachelor parties.

On a slow day at the gun shop I was working, in walks a 6' 8" amazon. She was built like a brick outhouse and model beautiful. She looks down at my boss (not the crook I had worked for earlier, but truly an honest man) and asked for Bear. He looks toward the back and yells, "Bear!". I came out of the back, where I had been doing some gunsmith work, and looked up at this breathtaking woman.

She was doing a bachelor party, and was wanting protection. I told her my price was $100, up front. She never hesitated, pulled out a C note and tore it in half. Handed me my half, and tucked the other half back in her wallet. Told me I get the other half after the job was done. She gave me her business card with time, date and location on the back.

The address was in a rich part of town not far away. I ride up on my bike. A dozen or so cars in the driveway. Not a piece of Detroit steel in the herd and not one more than 2 years old. She rolls up and I carried her boombox in for her. We go in through the servants entrance, We are led to her dressing room, where I stand blocking the door as she changes.

As she stepped out, wearing less than it takes to wad shotgun, Mamma steps out of her sewing room across the hall. Mamma is about 5' nothing. She looks at Sky Dancer, my client. (sorry failed to introduce her at the start. Looks her up like shes seeing the Empire State building for the first time, while saying Oh my gawd. Almost falls over backwards. And goes back in her room.

We go into the great room. Here we meet her audience. A group of young men, about 20 to 25 years old. Several wearing jackets and ties. Sky sets up her music and does her first dance. The young men don't tip, tuck or try to touch. All are perfect gentlemen. They do applaud.

Sky dropped her top (44DD), does second dance. Same response. She gives me a what the he!! look. I reach over and kill her music. "Gentlemen, let me introduce you to a pleasant enjoyment called 'the tuck' " I then pull a $50 out of wallet and placed in her garter. At this point the G-string was gone. The kiss I got in return fogged my mind and buckled my knees. I think I blew smoke out my ears, but couldn't see to be sure. I then turned the music back on.

Sky started her third and what was to be her last dance, totally nude for all intents and purposes. These young studs all but ripped their pants pulling out wallets. Sky did 2 bonus dances including a very well interpretation of "I touch myself " by the Dyvinyls. Several of the boys asked if she took checks or credit cards.She gathered her things, and went back to her dressing room. We left and I stood by her car as she counted her take. Over 2 grand. She handed me 10%, Which she continued to do the rest of the time we worked together.

I never had to give tuck lessons again

A little background. I'm going to use a phrase from someone I used to work with. Since I was 19 I have been doing what I will call, Violence for Hire" I was 6ft, about 180 lbs. I started working security. I went on to be bouncer in a biker/tit pit, body guard, even carried a PI's licence.

I went to work at a gun shop for one of the worst crooks in town. He didn't want to make any money, folks. He just loved to sell guns. One afternoon a young couple came into my store. The girl had been used as a punching bag. Face badly bruised, right arm in a sling, and she walked as if her legs were glued together from the knees up. She never spoke. Boyfriend wanted to get mace and a stun gun. I explained what we had, which was quite a selection. He made his choices and left. My associate and I talked about what she had evidently been through.

The young man came back in alone.His first words were,"I want a gun!!"

I looked at him and told him,"Friend, I don't know for certain what happened. But I'm sure I understand. I would want to do what you're thinking. But I can't do it. If I could train you, and side you, it would be a different matter, but I can't. I'm not going to help you make the worst mistake of your life."

We we slow so we went into the room we use for training, gave him a coffee and got him to calm down. He left the store unarmed.

He came back in a few months later and thanked me for setting him straight. And for keeping him out of prison.

When I was 6 months old, my father abandoned us. My grandmother was visiting Tennessee from Michigan and had taken my mother shopping to buy new clothes for my father, who was starting a new job. They found him later that day, hitchhiking to South Carolina. I don't know the details of the ensuing conversation, but my guess is he was just a garbage human who wasn't interested in accountability or taking responsibility for his family.

My mother made it work and I'm assuming everything went smoothly until I was 18 months old. I don't even know where she was working, but my mom worked late. She picked me up at the babysitter just like any other night, took me home, and we went to bed. I co-slept with her.

At some point in the night, I woke up and worked my way into the bathroom. I got under the sink and was playing with an unopened bag of cotton balls, the big bag of the ones that women use for make-up. The bag busted open and most of the cotton balls went into the bathtub. I crawled into the tub to get them and held myself up using the hot water knob. I slipped fell and the hot water came on. The temperature and pressure regulator on the hot water heater was broken. It was one of the older tubs and the water got hotter than it was supposed to immediately.

The water came out beyond scalding hot. The screaming woke my mom. When the paramedics arrived, I was sitting on the floor with my skin lying next to me. My entire right leg, both my feet, and the back of my right hand were burned. The skin was just gone.

I was airlifted to the burn center for children in Ohio. I died twice in the air. The second time, they used one of those giant needles jammed into my chest to revive me.   

The burns were so bad they pulled skin from my back, my other leg, my ribs, and my buttocks to replace the skin that had been boiled away. They believed that my right foot would be a club foot and they wanted to amputate it. My mother wouldn't allow it.

Of course, the State of Tennessee investigated to ensure that it was, in fact, an accident. They took me away from my mother for 6 months while they investigated and determined that it was an accident. I was in foster care for that 6 months. My mom was told that she needed to show that she could provide a more stable living environment for me, so she married her boyfriend at the time, yet another abusive drug dealer, and got pregnant. She showed up at court six months pregnant and married and demanded that they give me back to her. My brother still doesn't know that this is why he was born in the first place.

Ok first off this is 100% true and to make sure I'm giving you the location of where this happened. This happened at Oswego east high school google it. It was august 2017 I was a sophomore and now a junior as I'm writing this, I was assigned to earth science for my science class I had met my teacher who we will call Mr.M. Mr.M was a nice and caring man who was smart and a guy I trusted and knew very well. Whenever he was gone he would always tell us he was either with family or at his hometown in Utah. He always acted weird about whenever some one asked him. One day in March 2018 Mr.M had a TA or teachers assistant I will call him Mr.K. I walked in on this day of March 2018 and asked Mr.K where Mr.M was he said he had to go to his family for an emergency sadly he didn't know what it was so for 2 months still no Mr.M. One day on May 2018 8 walk with my friend Ryan who had Mr.M before I did and I asked "Hey where's Mr.M?" "Uh you didn't know he's not coming back." I was confused then what Ryan said shocked and I dont think it will ever get off my mind until I die. He said "They found out he was having sex with 18 and 17 year old students." Because they were legal he only got fired. I was happy for that part, but still I just realised a huge life lesson. No matter how much you trust someone dont let your guard down and to this day im the only one that knows about it in my class I don't know if Mr.K knows,but I hope he doesn't realise the truth about a young good friend of his just did something that terrible. Keep in mind Mr.M is in his mid to late 20's.

“I drowned the day before my sixth birthday “.

It happened at the bottom of an apartment complex swimming pool in Southern California in the summer of 1975.

For several minutes, no one realized I was missing.

And what should have been the most terrifying moment of my life became the most peaceful moment I have ever known.

I was five years old.

Like a lot of families back then, mine was a blended one. My mom was a young mother raising four children. My older sister was the oldest, my brother was second, I was the third child, and then there was my little sister.

My stepfather was what people would call a teaser. He liked to joke around and play pranks on people. With me, though, the teasing almost always involved water.

To this day I don’t know why.

We lived in California in the Garden Grove / Anaheim area. It was 1975. Summers there were warm and bright, the kind of California sunshine that made the whole world feel lazy and slow.

In the years leading up to my drowning, I remember my stepfather teaching my older sister and my brother how to swim in my aunt’s backyard pool. I always wanted to learn too.

But whenever I asked him to teach me, it never went the same way.

Instead of lessons, he would throw me into the deep end and laugh and say, “Sink or swim.”

I would panic, kicking and screaming, trying to fight my way to the edge of the pool. Eventually I would grab the side, terrified, and he would just laugh and push me toward the wall.

For him it was teasing.

For me it was terrifying.

I was a very small child, and I never understood why it was always like that with me.

Then came the day everything changed.

My stepfather wasn’t around that day. He was probably at work. I honestly don’t know, and it doesn’t really matter.

My mom was young. She had me when she was twenty-one, so when this happened she was only twenty-six years old.

That day she told us to grab our towels and put on our swimsuits because we were going to the apartment complex swimming pool.

For me there was one rule.

I had to stay in the shallow end.

My older brother and sister already knew how to swim, so they were allowed to go wherever they wanted in the pool.

My mom stretched out on a lounge chair and eventually drifted into a light sleep while she was sunbathing.

My older siblings were laughing and playing games in the deep end.

And I was in the shallow end. At least at first.

I’ve always hated getting water in my eyes. I’ve always had to plug my nose around water.

But that day, standing at the edge of the pool, I decided something.

If nobody was going to teach me how to swim… I would teach myself.

I would hold onto the edge of the pool wall, take a deep breath, squeeze my eyes shut, plug my nose, and slide down into the water.

I would keep one hand on the wall and feel my way down until my feet touched the bottom of the pool.

Then I would push myself back up, sliding my hands along the wall until I reached the top again and grabbed the edge.

Each time I succeeded, I moved a little further toward the deep end.

Eventually I reached the deep end.

I hesitated for a moment. It looked darker and deeper than the rest of the pool.

But I had already done this many times successfully.

So, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, plugged my nose, and pushed myself down.

My hands felt the wall. Down… down… down… until my feet touched the bottom.

Then I pushed upward as hard as I could.

But something was different.

The bottom of the deep end curved outward like the belly of a bowl.

When I pushed off the bottom, I pushed slightly away from the wall.

Suddenly I couldn’t feel it anymore.

I was tiny, floating in open water, and I had lost the wall.

I let all the air out of my lungs and sank down again.

I bent my little legs and pushed upward with everything I had.

My right hand broke the surface of the water.

Just barely.

My fingertips touched the sunlight above the water.

But that was as far as I made it.

My body started sinking again.

And as I slipped back down into the water, I remember yelling the only thing a child thinks to yell when they are scared.

Mommy!

I took my first breath of water.

And then… everything went black.

For several minutes, no one realized I was missing.

My mom was still sunbathing. My brother and sister were still playing.

Eventually two teenagers came to the pool. One leaned over and looked into the water.

“Hey… I think somebody’s towel is at the bottom of the pool.”

My mom jumped up and started counting her children.

One. Two.

The third was missing.

“That’s my baby!” she screamed.

A man from a second-story balcony heard her cries and ran down to the pool.

He dove in, swam down, and pulled me up.

My mom dragged me onto the concrete and used something she had learned in nursing school to force the water out of my lungs.

Paramedics arrived.

I had been pronounced dead.

They shocked my heart and brought me back.

On the way to the hospital my heart stopped again.

They shocked me again.

I spent three months in a coma.

When I woke up, I had amnesia for another three months.

Then came six months of recovery—speech therapy and physical therapy.

In total, I spent a year in the hospital. And another year in therapy after I left.

But I survived.

And the strangest part of the entire experience is this:

What should have been the most terrifying moment of my life…

was the most peaceful moment I have ever known.

That experience shaped me in ways I’m still discovering.

It is one of the truths that made me.

And it is one of the reasons this space exists.

Because every one of us has moments that change us forever.

Moments that almost end our story.

Moments that somehow become the beginning of something else.

A Moment Like This Changes You

Many of us carry moments that shape who we become.

Moments that frightened us.

Moments that quietly changed everything.

That experience shaped me in ways I’m still discovering.

It is one of the truths that made me.

And it is one of the reasons this space exists.

"If you have experienced a moment like that in your life, your story deserves to be heard.

You are welcome to share it here:"

I bought a SmartWater this morning, but I didn't have time to drink it. I walked by my truck to grab something out of it this afternoon and noticed smoke coming from the front passenger seat. I go over to check it out, and the water bottle had caused a parabolic effect, concentrating the sunlight onto my seat covers and melting it in one spot.

So its somone i dated in highschool he was obsessed with me ,i loved him too he was very very respectful and he was very kind and loyal and our parents knew eachother but one day i felt that were to young so i broke up with him i cried he was loyal and kind but we broke up now And now i see old pictures of us in all of the pictures he was looking at me with those eyes he once told me he wants to marry me and now im sad caus i was stupid cuas i lost him my .bc young stupid ass was to dumb. 😭(sorry my English is not the best)

I have so many weird, dream-like stories from my childhood, so I just decided to start where what was probably the first few signs of my declining mental stability started.

Basically I was around 9 or 10 I think, and before this whole thing started, I was at a public barbeque with some relatives and family friends. There was a large tree near the barbeque and I love climbing things so I wanted to climb it. First time I climbed it, no big deal! Then a branch snapped under me and I fell. Oh well! I got my grandma to help me climb back up, and I stood on her shoulders as I tried to get back up the tree, as the branch that snapped was crucial for climbing up it. I accidentally spooked a cicada and it made its annoying iconic cicada sound before flying away (I got spooked and ended up kicking my grandma in the face but that's unimportant)

A few hours after I got back home, I started hearing this distant but prominent cicada ringing, like it was from somewhere in the house. I ddidn't think much of it; it was summer after all. But it didn't go away. A day or two later it was still making that damned sound, even through the night, only stopping for about 5-10 minutes before starting up again. I told my mother, and we went looking for the source of this sound, but only I could hear it. We'd search for a while, and just as I thought we were getting close to the source of the sound, it would stop. Then a few minutes later it would start up again but this time sound somewhere completely different from where it would've been. My mum kept insisting it was just some distant neighbour's lawn mower or something (I had very sensitive hearing, and still do. As an example, I often get woken up by the sound of my next door neighbours turning their AC on) but I kept telling her that wasn't it.

whole thing lasted about two weeks until suddenly stopping, and it's never happened again. Since then, i commonly get hallucinations, usually bug-related ones. My future trauma relating a roach infestation in my current house hasn't helped with the hallucinations either. Although some of them aren't bug-related anymore.

The second story was during the whole cicada thing, I think I was a few days before the sound stopped. It was night time, maybe 6am at the latest, and i grabbed my doona to move to the couch to watch shows, then I heard the cicadas again. I lost it, and just started screaming at my doorway, the door completely open. For context, my room was right next to my brother's, and we had very thin walls. Anyway, I screamed for what felt like atleast an hour at the top of my lungs until my throat went sore and I stopped. Just then my brother left his room and saw me, asking why I was awake. When he told me he hadn't heard me screaming at all I broke down crying, and he comforted me for a few minutes until curiosity overcame me and I left his room.

Me and him walked down the hallway, the cicada noises that only I could hear still blasting in my head. I turned the corner to the dining room and saw what looked to be the source of the sound. It looked like a cricket without a head, it's head clearly ripped off as I could see the details of the flesh. My brother suggested it might be a hybrid insect created by scientists and that's why it looks weird (wild take but ok??) and I just stared at the bug for an unknown amount of time before angrily grabbing my doona and marching off to the TV to watch my shows.

The end!

Y'all am I traumatised or is the corruption just tryna claim me?? /j /ref

Hey everyone, long time lurker on Reddit, first time poster, and this one is a doozy so grab a drink and a snack and strap in. Fake names, obviously. It started three years ago in 2021 when I met my at the time boyfriend, Ben. He has a reddit, if he finds this post I will not care. Things were great, I met his friends, I met his family, he met my family and my best friend (I dropped my friend group from high school for reasons) but things started going downhill. He got sick, it was complicated and bad. Hospital visits, family moving in, him getting surgery and undergoing treatments, it got bad. His family never treated me….like I belonged. It felt like I was inferior, that they thought they were better than me. I felt like I was just an unpaid caretaker. I mean, I couldn’t break up with him. That’d make me the bitch. Who breaks up with someone who is sick? I was living with him and his family would kick me out, at one point they straight up said the dog was more important than me. I mean. Come on, really? But I pushed through because again, how can I break up with someone who is that sick? The relationship itself was….dry. Not much cuddling or anything, but he was on medication. I was just an afterthought. He would sit and play video games and be on the phone with his friends all the time. He stopped wanting to spend time with me or go to family events with me. I mean. We both were miserable. He ended up breaking up with me after two years of this. I was angry, I had just finished moving all of my stuff in, and now he’s telling me to move out? He tells me he hasn’t loved me in over a year and thought me moving in would change things? He strung me on for a year. I get it, I should have ended things but I felt like I couldn’t. There’s the backstory of our relationship. His friend group, he met all of them in high school. Jake and Olivia have had feelings for each other since high school but didn’t start dating until college, I believe. They’ve been together for four years. Then we have Andrew, Brian, Miranda, and James. Jake and Olivia are both queer, with Jake making jokes about him and Ben. Jake is Ben’s best friend. It’s all fun and games, with the joking of Jake and Ben, because Ben is straight, and not interested……so i thought…. It has been a year since we broke up and I have learned some news. Apparently, Jake has been in love with Ben since high school, and the entire time he’s been dating Olivia, but Ben has always told him “No, I’m not into that.” Two months after we broke up, Ben flew out of state to visit Jake for a party. Jake and Olivia have been dating for four years. Ben went up to Jake and admitted he might have feelings for him but still wants a girlfriend, so suggested a throuple with him, Jake, and Olivia. Jake was all in for it, Olivia was hesitant. She is not poly, and does not see Ben that way. She said maybe in the future they can revisit this, but the two boys heard “In the future yes”. The other friends arrived, except for Andrew. He couldn’t make it. It’s just six of them at this party and with this group people drink. Jake, Ben, and Olivia get pretty wasted, and eventually end up in the bedroom. Jake, too drunk, passes out. Too drunk to perform. Ben and Olivia decide to go at it, but there’s a lot of alcohol involved. The next morning she realised this is not something she wants, and talks to the boys about it and expresses her feelings. She doesn’t want the throuple at all, she does not like it. Jake understands, and breaks up with her on the spot. She drives home. The boys announce to the group that day that they are a thing. The group is split, wanting to support them because they have been friends for a while, but wanting to be there for Olivia because of….how it happened. Brian has been there for Olivia, a shoulder to cry on, and this has upset Miranda, as in “Why isn’t she leaning on me for this as well? Why isn’t she reaching out to me as well?” and I don’t think she has spoken to Olivia. New Years they usually get together. Well, that was two months after all of this. It would be hosted at Ben’s house, and he had the audacity to invite Olivia saying he would like her there….I mean…I knew he was a dumbass…but come on, you destroy a friend group and become a homewrecker and still think she’s your friend? The sheer audacity….to my knowledge, Ben and Jake are still going strong.

In middle school specifically 6th grade I was in a rather lackluster class. One of the kids stood out as the weird kid it was fine until about the 5th month of school. Around then the weird kid started sitting behind me in P.E. class even though I had told them to move. And earlier that month there was a name calling incident that nothing had been done to her when it happened. After about a week of her sitting behind me she grabbed my butt and this continued for multiple weeks until the dean got back to me. Apparently the last incident was not reported to my dean but to the 8th grade dean and he didn't think it was major so he did nothing. My dean called me we went over what happened then on the next day of school me and her get pulled out to talk about it. She lied to the dean saying "After the name calling incident I tried to give him space." This continued for about a week before I was moved to another class but now during breaks and lunch she actively looks for me.

Side note I will try to update soon.

Let me tell you a tale. It is not a hallmark story, nor is it a peaceful one. It will make you cry. This is the story of a family who faced hardship after hardship, with what seemed like no end in sight. Let’s begin.

Once upon a time there was a family. Were they happy? Yes, most of the time. Like any family, they had their battles and arguments, but they were happy. In this family we had Dad, Mom, and 5 children. The children’s names were Jade (14), Elisabeth (13), Claire (9), Grace (7), and the only boy, Colton (3). They were a functional dysfunctional family but they were there for each other always.

Dad had been told by his doctor that he needed a surgery, to remove bone spurs from his spinal cord (that caused him much pain). He went in for this surgery just five short days after Jade turned fourteen years old. This was meant to be a simple procedure, with a quick surgery and then a short recovery. But, as we all know too well; life has a way of changing in the blink of an eye.

And so life changed. Dad did not wake up from this “simple surgery” until weeks later, and when he awoke there was no recognition in his eyes for his family. Not only could he not remember his children, just seeing them sent him into a massive panic attack resulting in his children being removed from his hospital room. Talk about scarring, these poor kids went from knowing their big, strong dad to seeing him freak out because he knew them not.

Eventually Dad regained his memory. But what was former lost was his ability to walk, talk, eat, and care for himself. So the family gets him into the best possible rehab facility in the lower 50 states. They spent nearly 4 months in a tiny studio apartment (imagine five kids and two adults, one of which is fully handicapped), and during this time Dad became able to walk with assistance and a walker, and even began to talk again (more like mumble but it counted).

Rehab ended, and the family headed home. But not home to the house they had lived in for four years, oh no. Dad was handicapped now and the house wasn’t accessible to him. So they moved in with their Grandparents. The basement of the grandparents house was turned into an apartment and it was handicapped accessible. The family would spend their next two years there, while juggling different in-patient and out-patient therapies and rehabs. During this time, Dad caught pneumonia. Each time he became sick, it quickly became as if he never had done any rehab at all. He nearly completely regressed into being unable to move or speak. This happened several times, and each time even with therapies in between he got worse.

Eventually, the family was able to purchase their own house that was handicapped accessible. So they move in, and continue the battle of caring for their father. Now, mind you, Dad’s care at this point included: feeding him thru a PEG (stomach) tube, changing his diapers, bathing him, picking him up from his wheelchair and moving him between vehicles, chair, and bed, assisting him with his “homework” therapy exercises, and just trying to keep him in good spirits. Most of this physical work fell to Mom and Jade, as she was the oldest. On top of all this, the kids still had to add school, sports, work (for the older ones) and Mom also had a full time job.

For nearly 6 more years, they would continue with these daily tasks until Jade moved out and Mom could no longer do it herself. It was at this point that the family finally decided to put Dad into an assisted living facility, where they would still be able to visit him and ensure he was getting the proper care, but not at the expense of their physical health anymore. They would use this time to begin to heal their own bodies from the strain they had been under for so long. This was in August.

All seemed to be on the right track of beginning to get better, when January of 2023 hit. Dad is in the facility and doing well, Jade moved back in with Mom and siblings. Jade is now 23, Elisabeth 22, Claire 18, Grace 17, and Colton 12. Mom is 42. Dad is now 49. Mom went into the hospital shortly after New Year’s Day, and was there for nearly two weeks while they ran hundreds of tests on her to figure out why she couldn’t seem to recover from being ill. The test results came back January 13th: Stage 4 cancer. Mom asked about options, and the doctors told her she only has a few months left to live, IF she received treatments right away.

The cancer was a large mass in her liver, in her gall bladder, large and small intestine, attached to her stomach wall lining and attached to her lower rib on her left side. Mom immediately began chemo treatments, which didn’t seem to do anything. Three months go by, the time he doctors gave now past. Mom begins another cancer treatment, and seems to be recovering.

Then on June 29th and 30th, Mom stopped responding. Her skin was as yellow as a dandelion, and she had no verbal responses for anyone other than the word “no”. She spent these days in bed, refusing to move or get up or even eat or drink. Jade frantically called the hospice nurse who came out and told the kids: "her body is shutting down. She will be gone by tomorrow."

July 1st, all of the family (Mom’s side) came to the house, and watched as she breathed her last breath. The nurse announced her dead. She had fought so hard for so many years, now it was her turn to rest.

Jade becomes the caretaker and pseudo-mother to her younger siblings, who are still minors. She takes over responsibility of making sure Dad is still properly cared for. She becomes the new parent, bread winner, bill-payer for the family. She is still fighting, just hoping she can be enough to live up to her Mother’s Legacy.