Today, two days after his funeral, the anniversary flowers he bought for me online last week arrived at our house. The attached note said, “Even if cancer wins, I still got to marry the girl of my dreams.” MMT

Today, a 21-year-old girl with a bald head came into the driver’s license office where I work to renew her license. She joked with me about how long the line was, and then sarcastically said, “Please, give me a lifetime license so I don’t have to wait in that line again.” I smiled and replied, “I wish I could, but unfortunately the computer doesn’t let me issue a license with an expiration date longer than six years.” She stared at me with a blank expression for a second and then said, “That might be long enough.” MMT

Today, about an hour before he passed, my father told me he loved me for the first time since I came out 25 years ago. MMT

Today, six months after his passing, I flew from Austin, Texas to Melbourne, Australia to clean out my brother’s overseas condo and finalize its sale. As you might imagine, the entire experience was a sad one. But one thing that jumped out at me was my brother’s desk planner. Two weeks before he passed he crossed out a 9-day vacation on his calendar with a note saying, “Not enough time, maybe next month.” MMT

Today, I’m sitting here alone in her bedroom thinking about how I never thought the last time I saw her sitting here this morning would be the last time I would ever see her. MMT

Today, I was on the phone with my 9 year old daughter, reminding her that I would be sending her Christmas present late because I was out of the country on business and not in an area where I could easily ship something. She got quiet for a moment, and then said, “Daddy, the best present ever would be if you came home and talked to me more often.” MMT

Today, as my grandpa rested in his hospital bed, desperately fighting pancreatic cancer, he squeezed my hand tight and said, “Promise me, no matter how good or bad you have it, you will wake up every morning thankful for your life. Because every morning you wake up, someone somewhere else will be desperately fighting for theirs.” MMT

Today, my dad had a heart attack at 7AM and passed away. It was sudden and totally unexpected. This evening, as my mom and I shared a quiet moment together, she said, “If I had known that yesterday would be your father’s last, I would never have spent the afternoon and evening arguing with him about saving more money for our retirement.” MMT

Today, after I received an emergency call from my mother in-law, I came back home from an overseas business trip to a burned down house and the reality of starting my life over again as a widower. MMT

Today, after my curiosity got the best of me three years ago, my three year search for my biological parents ended after I received their full names from an adoption and infant rescue hospital overseas in London. I simply typed my biological father’s full name into Google and the very first search result was a short article in a local newspaper archive about the “unfortunate murder” of my mother and father about a week after the “birth of their first child.” MMT

Today, my five-year-old, who is dying of cancer, hugged me as I cried and said, “Daddy, don’t cry. It’s me who is sick. You’re going to be okay.” MMT

Today is the day my son was scheduled to return home from Afghanistan. Tomorrow would have been his 20th birthday. MMT

Today, a 16 year old girl holds hands with her one year old son. People call her names, but they don’t know she was raped at 15. People call another girl fat, but they don’t know she has a serious thyroid disease causing her to be overweight. People call a young man with scars on his face ugly, but they don’t know he had a serious injury to the face fighting for his country in the war. I know these things because the two girls are my little sisters and the young man is my older brother. MMT

Today, one of my friends passed away unexpectedly in his sleep from what doctors are calling a massive brain aneurism. Yesterday morning our English professor challenged us to write a one page paper about what we would do if we knew we only had a few hours to live. My late friend and I both, independently, wrote about skydiving and living the last few hours adventurously. When we realized we wrote about the same thing we decided to spontaneously book an afternoon skydiving jump. And we jumped in tandem together last night at 6PM. At least I know he spent his last few hours the way he wanted to. MMT

Today, I sometimes still wake up next to my husband in the morning expecting to see my ex-husband who passed away in a car accident 5 years ago. MMT

Today, I spent the entire afternoon at the hospital hoping my girlfriend would pull through from the injuries she sustained in a car accident. She didn’t. We had only been dating for two months, but I felt like she was different than the rest – like there was a special connection. I got home this evening to find a note she had left for me on the kitchen counter (I left before her this morning). The entire note simply reads, “PS: I love you.” – three words I had been hoping to hear from her sometime soon. MMT

Today, after an 11 month tour of duty in the Army, my husband has been home from Afghanistan for 9 days. During a heavy rain storm this morning at 4AM, following a loud crack of thunder, my husband jumped out of bed, half asleep, and onto the floor and screamed, “Get down! Get down!” MMT

Today, one of my teachers ended her own life early. It came as a huge surprise to the entire student body. She was a usual student favorite and she always left post-it notes with sincere, positive remarks on student’s assignments, even if the quality of the student’s work wasn’t perfect. I wish we all had returned the favor. She will be missed dearly. MMT

Today, three full years after his passing, my son’s Facebook wall still receives at least a few comments every day from friends telling him how much they miss him. I wish he had known how much people cared before he decided to jump. MMT

Today, I woke up from surgery to find out that the surgeons had to remove both of my ovaries due to infected cysts. I never really thought about having children until now – the moment I no longer have a choice. MMT

Today, I realized that a month ago, on the night my best friend died in an accident while driving to a pub downtown, the text I meant to send her inviting her to a small party at my house in the suburbs never sent properly. MMT

Today, if I hadn’t been sleeping with my phone on silent, and had answered one of her three missed calls, I wonder if she still would have pulled the trigger. MMT

Today, after he died, despite my accusations that he cared about his work more than he did about me, I found out that his work computer’s password was my first name and his desktop background was a rolling slideshow of 100 photos of the two of us. MMT

Today, one of my patients, a recovering burn victim, caught sight of her own face in the mirror and screamed, “Noooo!” MMT