These stories from Reddit might sound too crazy to be true—but sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction.
1. A Family With A Target On Their Backs
In 1986, my parents planned a trip to Disney in Florida, a random man tried to take my half-brother by snatching him and running. He was tackled and my brother was safely returned to us. But there was a catch. Unfortunately, nothing happened to the guy as he disappeared into the crowd.
Fast forward to 1989, in Ohio at a pop-up circus in a field, I was given change to go get a popcorn. A man dressed as a clown approached me, and after several long minutes of small talk, he grabbed me.
Bystanders saw the ordeal and a random man with exquisite sideburns chased down this man who had thrown me into his pickup truck and gunned it. This time, he wasn’t so lucky. Mr Sideburns and another man were able to pull him from the vehicle and stop the truck as it rolled into a parking lot and hit several parked vehicles.
I was fine other than some forehead scrapes from hitting the dash. The clown was not a circus performer or associated with the circus. He was an opportunistic predator. Still, I can’t even say either of these events were the worst part of my childhood. Also, screw clowns.
2. An Awkward Angle
I was riding my bike around my apartment building as a kid when I ran into some of my tormentors from school. Now as a kid I had a problem with shutting up. I simply had no idea how, and I tended to tick these people off.
So I was riding my bike as fast as possible to get away from them—they were also on bikes. Then I hit something on the ground and went flying. A few things to note: I was a tiny little girl, like 70 pounds tops. I was poor, so my bike was used, a bit rusty and most importantly, missing handle bar grips
The combination of speed, my weight, and whatever I hit, launched me more up than forward. So I hit something, the bike fell on its side, and then I fell on the bike. It felt like it knocked the wind out of me. Then came the moment I knew it had to be bad.
One of the guys pedaled away as fast as possible. Meanwhile, the other one helped me home, all while saying that this doesn't make us friends along the way. We all left our bikes where they were. I didn't care, my mid-section hurt where I landed.
I got home and my mom turned to greet me and practically screamed that I was bleeding. I looked down and realized that I was bleeding a lot from my stomach and fainted. I woke up at the hospital later to find out that I had landed on a bike handle, which had impaled me through my mid-section about halfway through me.
Missed my organs just barely and left me with a neat scar and a story no one believes…until they see the scar.
3. A Close Call
I lived in a small, quiet town and my house was in a cul-de-sac, so all the neighbors knew each other and we all got along well. One night when I was about 12 years old, I was babysitting my baby brothers (twins).
It was bedtime so we were laying in my mom’s bed, watching a movie to wind down. Suddenly they both start whining that they want chocolate milk. I was super annoyed because I just wanted them to go to sleep so I could be off the clock, so to speak.
Just as we walked through the doorway and out of the bedroom, I heard what sounded like firecrackers going off in the bedroom we just left. I peeked my head back in the doorway and heard a couple more. It sounded like it was coming from the closet, which was about a foot away from me at this point.
I called my mom and told her what happened and that I was scared. We didn’t go back in the room until she got home. Once she was home, we made a jaw-dropping discovery. There were several slug holes throughout the bedroom—in the walls, in the closet door, and one in the corner of the TV.
We called the authorities, and they figured out that our neighbor had been doing some target practice in his garage (and drinking) and his garage wall faced our house. The bullets entered my mom’s bedroom through the wall, just a few inches above her bed, which had no headboard.
It was right where our heads had been while we were lying there watching the movie. If those little buttheads hadn’t bothered me for chocolate milk at that exact moment, things could have been very different.
4. Not All Heroes Wear Capes
Our house was at the bus stop. I woke up sick that morning and didn’t go to school. My grandma was the neighborhood grandma, and she kept an eye on the kids who were at the stop every morning.
One morning, she was watching the girl at the corner (she was the only one riding that morning)—then looked back and she was gone. A man was dragging her across our backyard. My grandma ran at him, screaming and throwing rocks at him while I called the authorities.
She won citizen of the year in our city.
5. Service With A Snarl
When I was 15, I was traveling in a foreign country with my sister, who is 26. We stayed at a local hotel. My period came and I got a little bit on the sheets the first night. Housekeeping came and cleaned as usual, nothing mentioned.
A few days passed and when we were checking out, it all got very weird. They asked to see our passports again. I guess we thought they just needed to double check their guest registry to update it.
Once the passports were in, however, the front desk person (who was a man) got really angry with us and began yelling at us for "making mess" in the hotel. At first, we had no idea what he was talking about because we are very tidy travelers.
He just kept yelling that we "made trouble" for him. He then proceeded to ask housekeeping to bring out the “evidence” and guess what, they proceeded TO BRING OUT THE UNWASHED SHEETS. What the heck? No idea where they had stored it.
A nice young Australian couple witnessed the whole thing. The lady muttered "it's just a few spots, can't you just wash it?" He yelled at them to stay out of it and they fell silent. He even asked who made the mess—my sister, being a good older sister, said she did.
15-year-old me felt like I had done something genuinely wrong. My sister "paid him for the sheets" and got our passports back so we could leave.
6. Lightning Strikes Twice
Years ago, I broke my right foot. After 6 weeks in a boot, I was leaving the orthopedist’s office boot-free. Just me and my own two feet, bare on the ground. I was so excited to drive home, now that I was out of that darn boot.
And then on the way to the car, I stepped off the curb, rolled my left ankle, and broke it.
7. A Man You Want On Your Side
Not me, but my uncle. He was in Jamaica on holiday when his wife, who was doing fitness classes, passed due to a perforated bowel from a meal at the resort. It took a crazy twist. After it happened, the authorities drove him to an ATM and told him he's going to be suspect #1 if he doesn't pay them.
They also said if he didn’t cave, they’d make sure his wife’s remains were never repatriated to the US. He complied and they took him back to the resort. The unbelievable was yet to come. Unbeknownst to him, I’m not kidding you, T-Pain was also there and caught wind of the situation.
He worked magic with his connections to keep my uncle safe and bring my aunt home for a funeral, as well as providing his bodyguard protection to my uncle. To this day, almost two decades later, they will video chat on holidays like Easter to talk, and in my view that man is a saint to our family.
Anytime he's in town they'll meet backstage before one of his concerts and they'll have a big hug. One time he met his family. I will never forget the kindness this man has shown over DECADES, it's insane.
LightField Studios, Shutterstock
8. Thrown For A Loop
I was thrown off a motorcycle on the interstate when I was 22 months old. Yes, MONTHS. My parents thought I was a goner because my head was cut open, but took me to the hospital anyway. And thank goodness they did.
9. Right Place, Wrong Time
I have randomly come across not one, but two people attempting to take their own lives at two different periods. I didn’t know either of them, both in totally different locations. Both times I was just living my normal life and then suddenly I’m trying to stop someone from doing something.
An ambulance came and got the one. The other one, after a very long talk down, ended up taking off upon realizing I had dialed 9-1-1.
10. It Happened In A Flash
I was lying on the beach in the sand when I heard a soft thud next to me. I sat up and saw a half-eaten peanut butter sandwich lying next to me in the sand. Wondering where it came from, I looked up and saw, to my surprise and horror, a flock of seagulls descending upon me and the sandwich one of them had just dropped.
It was a mad frenzy of them fighting me and each other for the sandwich and me fighting them to get away. The whole thing was over in five seconds.
Naruedom Yaempongsa, Shutterstock
11. Giving Birth To A Nightmare
I was born in the early 80s, and during that time they took newborns away to the nursery to be cared for away from the parents. When it was time for my mother to leave the hospital, they returned her baby to her.
Before my parents left, they needed to change the baby’s diaper. They nearly screamed. When they removed the diaper, they saw that the baby that they had was a girl when my mother had given birth to a boy.
The hospital tracked down the parents who had me and got the babies back to their rightful parents. Some crazy stuff.
12. The Dingoes Ate My Sleeping Bag
I was camping in Australia when I woke up to a weird feeling at my feet. Suddenly, I saw that dingoes were chewing on my toes through my sleeping bag—and that they had dragged me out of my tent. One of them was standing on my stomach, staring me in the face.
Now, I'm not a fighter, but I hit him such a punch on the side of the head...like, a perfect right cross to his cute lil face. He went flying sideways, which spooked all the others (about 4 or 5 of them) and, with a few kicks from my bagged up legs, they scuttled away.
I went back into the tent to find my then-girlfriend still asleep and snoring away. The next morning, I went over to our tour guide fellow, a massive Aussie dude named Tony, and told him what happened. He asked "Didja see which one it was?"
And funnily enough, I did. He had a yellow and blue tag in his ear (they're all tagged on the island). Tony just said, "Aw yeah, that jerk”. I ended up punching quite a bit of wildlife in my year there, but that definitely started it.
13. A Fair Trade Off If You Ask Me
In 2012, I lifeguarded at a beach in Delaware. I was talking with a lady who was drinking a glass of red on the beach. While telling her she was not allowed to do that, the weirdest thing happened. Dave Grohl walked behind me. I am a massive fan and knew he would vacation at this beach, but never assumed I would run into him.
In my moment of being absolutely starstruck the lady goes, “Oh you’re a fan of Dave I see?” Barely able to talk I said, “Yes, he is a reason I got into drumming”. She then said “Oh he’s my son, you should go say hi!” I let her drink her glass and I was able to talk to my music idol for a solid 20 minutes. One of the best days of my life.
Anastasija Vujic, Shutterstock
14. That’ll Stick With You
My childhood best friend's mom passed by drowning. My best friend then passed a couple of months later by being hit by an 18-wheeler on the side of the road. It just didn’t end. Her father then passed a few months later from throat cancer.
I lost my entire second family in under a year due to unrelated incidents. It's been 7 years and I'm still not over it.
15. Too Innocent
When I was in elementary school, we went on a class trip to one of those old colonial towns to see how life was back then for settlers. During lunch break, I went to the bathroom and a man paid me to take pictures of me in the bathroom.
I was really excited to get money. Next thing I knew, I was in a patrol car, scared out of my mind that I was in trouble. I kept apologizing to the officer while my mom tried to calm me down. I remember crying all night that my principal would hate me because I made the officers come.
What an odd memory.
16. Down To The Bone
I broke my humerus while sitting stock still at my computer desk. Bone cancer had eaten through it and it chose that moment to just snap in half. 0/10 do not recommend. Also, I did not realize I had cancer at the time! This was how I found out.
I had my elbow resting on the arm rest, so I imagine the pressure was what finally did it in. I am okay now, almost 10 years in remission.
17. Time To Move To A Cave
You know those big Fun Slides you ride down on the carpet thing? When I was 8, the worker giving the push accidentally stood on my carpet and I went flying down all three parts and bumps of the slide on my back and arms.
I ended up blistering and bubbling all over my hands and arms. The worst skin burns of my life and I almost passed out. Somehow, fate wasn’t finished. Next day on boardwalk, a seagull pooped on my head.
18. Making A Good Second Impression
I was once on a date and he got up to go to the toilet. After 10 minutes I started to worry if he had left, so I sent him a text and he replied asking me to come to the toilet. I found it strange but decided to go to the toilet.
When I went in I was hit with a smell that I had never experienced. He then told me that he was not feeling well because of the food and that he had pooped his pants. By the way, this was only our second date.
I then had to phone his mother and she had to come and drop off some new pants for him and had to take him home. We had already ordered food, so I had to pay because he had to leave. He never phoned me back after that.
19. Small Bite, Big Consequences
I was almost gone by a bug? I was bitten by a flea or a tick, unsure of which. A couple weeks later, I passed out in a Walmart and woke up after emergency surgery with a hole bigger than my fist in my abdomen under my left ribs. MRSA infection man, I do not recommend.
20. Attack Of The Squirrel
When I was 10 years old, several people in my neighborhood were jumped on by a deranged squirrel that was missing part of its tail. One day, my dad was at work and my mom was running errands, so myself and my two other brothers (aged 14 and 7) were left home alone.
I was in the kitchen and my 7-year-old brother was playing on the back porch. Suddenly, a squirrel that was missing the tip of its tail started attacking the kitchen window, about 10 feet from where my brother was playing.
I ran outside to caution my younger brother, but it was too late. The squirrel had already bitten a chunk out of his finger, which was now bleeding, and was running up and down his arm while my brother screamed his head off. I grabbed this insane, bloodthirsty creature with my BARE HANDS and chucked it into a tree.
By now my older brother had come to see what was going on. I told him what had happened, and because this took place in small town Mississippi, he of course had full access to the family pieces cabinet. He got one, went outside, and shot some random squirrel that was NOT missing the tip of its tail.
I told everyone that it was not the same squirrel, but no one listened to me. The story of my brother’s heroic actions went around town and he was even written about in the town newspaper for saving the day. Absolutely no mention of me or my heroism at all.
21. It All Makes Sense Now
I was in a weird love triangle back in like 2007. I was into a girl, but her near-inseparable best friend was into me. I wanted to go out with the girl, but she felt weird going out with me while her best friend kept talking about me, and said I should go out with the best friend first and let her get me out of her system.
So, I did that. It went ok but no chemistry. I then went out with the first girl and there was major chemistry, but she was still withholding. It became more and more where it was always the two of them coming on outings with me (and sometimes ditching me)…until the day they told me they both decided to date each other.
22. Don’t Mess With The Penguin
I got bitten by a penguin…on my neck. No, I wasn’t doing anything stupid at the time. The penguin was standing on a table for photo ops (as an animal ambassador for a zoo) and it went for my drink glass as I stood next to it.
I moved my glass out of the way, and got nipped on my neck for my troubles.
23. Mom To The Rescue
I almost lost my life in a parasailing accident when I was young. I was up there with my mom. There were others out doing the same thing and our ropes nearly got tangled. I vividly remember my mom panicking before being a total boss and steering us out of a disaster.
24. A Truly Hidden Talent
I wrecked my bike in the summer after 7th grade and had to be mercy flighted, broken bones, quite severe concussion, the whole nine yards. I forgot 90% of seventh grade and struggled in 8th, but a weird side effect was that I could play music now.
Before I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, couldn’t hear when notes were the same or different, completely tone-deaf, and after the accident I could. I sang in my college choir for four years.
Monkey Business Images, Shutterstock
25. The Mystery Woman
My grandfather has been married to three women in my lifetime. First, my dad's mom, to whom he was married when I was born and divorced when I was a year old so he could get with his second wife.
This woman was my step-grandmother, who he married immediately after the divorce from his first and who I've considered one of my grandmothers my whole life. Well, he divorced her when she was diagnosed with schizophrenia around the time I was in my early 20s.
His current wife, who he married when I was in my early 30s, is someone I have never met and have zero plans to. Here's where the unbelievable but true part comes in. Each of these women have a photograph of themselves holding me as an infant in the hospital when I was born.
The first wife makes sense, of course. The second is a bit tacky—he wasn't divorced yet so I'm not sure what the vibe was. But hey, makes sense too in the end. The third woman, though—none of us know why or when she was there.
We didn't even learn about this woman's existence until they married 30+ years after the picture in question was taken. I was a very distinct-looking baby thanks to being severely post term (born more than 2 weeks past my due date), so the photos are easy to verify.
I've been no-contact with him for almost 20 years for many reasons, including this one. He's a piece of work.
26. Want To Play A Game?
When I was young, I swallowed a game token and it got lodged in my throat. Thankfully just before it got stuck, I let out a muffled scream. My dad was downstairs watching TV. He heard the scream and came running upstairs.
He found me choking and attempted the Heimlich maneuver. Unfortunately, it didn't work. So he picked me up and rushed me into the bathroom. He then lifted me upside down and my stepmom began hitting me on the back while she was calling 9-1-1.
I swear it felt like forever but the token came out and fell in the toilet. I'm sure they must have been shocked to see what I had been choking on this whole time. If it hadn't been for my dad's superhuman hearing and quick thinking I don't know if I would still be here now.
27. The Long Way Round
I got stranded at 18,000 feet on a 20,000+ mountain due to weather. Nobody except the person with me knew where I was and we had no emergency beacon or communication device. No other people on the mountain.
We had to wait it out until next morning to hike back down to safety. That's the short story. Do not recommend.
28. The Phantom Cutter
When I was around 11 or 12, I woke up in the middle of the night with a pretty strong pain in my head, but got back to sleep pretty quickly afterwards. When I got up that morning, I noticed the weirdest thing. I had dried blood on my hand (where I felt my head), and a big cut across my forehead and eyebrow.
I didn't own any cats at the time (if it happened now, my cat would be the prime suspect, ha), I didn't have any random posters over my bed...I really can't think of any logical cause. It spooked me out pretty badly, but nothing unexplainable or scary has ever happened since.
Queenmoonlite Studio, Shutterstock
29. A Whole Lot Of Nothing
I got made redundant from an extremely busy job where I was desperately needed, and moved into a non-existent job in another department. I spent around 3 weeks doing absolutely nothing on a daily basis and had zero work to do, ever.
I would fill my days by walking round the building talking to people, sitting for hours on end in the staff canteen looking at other jobs, and sitting in my car, before eventually getting myself fired on purpose so I could escape it.
30. Out Of The Frying Pan And Into The Fire
When I was 9, I tripped over a log playing tag in the dark and fell into the middle of a small bonfire we had going in the yard after my grandma’s funeral. I had both my knees and hands directly in the coals, and it took me a few seconds to realize where I had fallen.
I felt a sharp pain in one of my hands and got up and walked out. Only my left hand got burnt black, and the rest of me was totally fine. It healed up well, and now I just have a tiny scar with a little black dot embedded in it.
Luckily my nerves were seared so it wasn't even very painful and the subsequent blisters that covered my hand after all the black was scraped off just kept reforming until the skin healed. We were poor so my parents didn't take me to the doctor or even bandage it. It was a small miracle it healed so well
KonstantinChristian, Shutterstock
31. High School Never Lets You Forget
I pooped my pants in a carnival ride while wearing cargo shorts. It got way more horrific. The poop slung out of the leg of my shorts and rained down on the unsuspecting patrons below. It shut down the entire area.
Nobody got funnel cakes. My dad made me ride in the back of the truck home without bottoms on and I don’t like wearing undies. I was 14 at the time and was raised in rural Alabama. The carnival coming to town was a whole city-wide ordeal in my tiny high school.
I was the “poop slinger” for years, and some people in my friend group still bring it up. I’m 31 now.
32. A Medical Case For Dr House
I had an allergic reaction to either the anesthesia or the mesh in a hernia repair. Either way, my lower body broke out into this crazy rash. It looked like someone had dropped me in acid up to my belly button, but also on my hands up to my elbows.
A perfect line where it ended, bottom half red as sunburn. The weirdest part is that when I put my arms down to rest at my side, the rash lined up. I went to multiple specialists, including a hematologist, who ran every test they could think of.
No answers. Crazy half-body rash lasted about 6 weeks and the best answer I got was “probably” an allergic reaction, and to not have any elective surgeries in case it was the anesthesia. That was 8 years ago and I still don’t know what the heck happened.
33. A Mother’s Instinct
Once when I was an infant, my mom put me down to sleep. Then she abruptly decided to wake me up and take me back to their room for no real reason. Later that night, a driver sailed straight down the hill above our house and plowed through a wall. My crib was just splinters.
34. The Lion’s Share
I'm Irish. When I was a teenager, me and my friends would sneak into our local soccer team’s stadium every Friday night instead of paying. The soccer stadium was next to a pitch and putt course and the local city dump. Glamorous, I know.
Sneaking into the soccer stadium involved firstly sneaking into the pitch and putt course. This was no big deal because at night there was no security, and it only had a waist-high wooden fence protecting it. Once on the course, we would run to the 18th hole.
There we would encounter a 10-foot metal fence surrounding the soccer stadium to our south and a narrow river between (shallow and easily crossed) behind us and the dump to our north. This was the best point to enter as it was the furthest point away from the stand and flood lights of the stadium, and harder for the security who were often patrolling the fence to see us.
At this point, I would give the other kids a "leg up" onto the fence so they could scale and it and jump in. I did this as I was one of the older members of the group (and therefore taller) and could scale the fence unassisted. This area was pretty dark, but on this night there was a full moon so a bit more light.
So I was assisting the last kid over when I had this sense something was behind me. I turned my head towards the dump. The whole dump was elevated upon a mound of land about 15 feet high, so I was looking up and there it was as clear as day.
A lion.
I'll never forget it, he was just standing up there looking at me with a glorious full moon behind him. I couldn't believe my eyes. There are no lions in Ireland, how is this possible? I called for my friends, but they had gone. We both stood there just for a few seconds staring at each other when I realized he could bound down the hill at me and rip me to shreds.
So I scaled the fence and we never saw each other again. Nonetheless, after I told my friends of this event none of them believed me. "A lion?!!” The slagging went on for years, I was called the lion king often, but I could never shake this sight and experience.
As the years went by, I wondered if I imagined the whole thing. Then many years later I was at a session and some random guy was telling stories. He had a few interesting ones as he and his cousin had literally run away with the circus after it came to town one day and did a bit of traveling.
He proceeds to tell the story of when he was in my town and how there was a big panic amongst the circus staff as a lion had escaped and fled to the city dump when they were trying to put it back in its cage. VINDICATED.
35. It All Comes Full Circle
When I was 17 years old, my dad had cancer in his hip that had metastasized from his throat. He was getting radiation treatment from Sloan Kettering in New York City. We live in Georgia, so the radiation treatment required my mom and dad to fly to New York City every single Tuesday and fly back home on Thursdays.
This went on for basically my entire junior year of high school. While I was home alone one week, a man broke into our house and knocked over a bookshelf in the basement that woke me up. I grabbed my baseball bat that I would sleep with and slowly and quietly made my way down to the basement.
As soon as I got into the basement and turned the light on, I saw the man holding our TV. He immediately dropped it and came running at me. I took one swing at his torso. Then it all went so wrong. He ducked and the bat ended up hitting him right in the temple. He fell straight to the floor, unconscious.
Thinking he was the only man who broke in, I ran all the way back up to my room to get my phone and call the authorities. By the time I got back down the stairs, the man was gone. After hanging up, I looked at our security cameras on my phone. The story quickly changed. I saw a different man running away, while carrying the man that I had hit in his arms.
Officers arrived and I showed them the security footage and then they eventually left. My parents decided to come home immediately the next day because of the break-in, but my dad was also feeling way worse than normal, so the doctor decided to not do the radiation that week.
That same day that my parents got back home, my mom ended up having to call an ambulance for my dad. We ended up finding out that the doctor had accidentally hit his stomach with the radiation from one of his recent treatments.
About 2 days later while still in the hospital, I got up to find the cafeteria and as I glance into an open room walking down the hallway, I see the man that I had hit with the baseball bat sitting in a hospital bed. I walked back and forth nonchalantly to really make sure it was him.
I went and told my parents and they told the nurses. Officers showed up and decided to give him one more day under medical care before they ended up taking him in.
Christian Delbert, Shutterstock
36. They Did Me A Favor
3 years ago, I had 3 guys try to rob me. I was very fit then and had trained in jiu jitsu and muay thai. In the end, I put two of them in the hospital and all three were detained. I walked away with really bad bruises and cuts, a concussion, and possible broken ribs.
During the fight I got hit with a crowbar. Well, when I went to have my ribs scanned, they ended up finding cancer. Stage 4 of an extremely rare cancer that only about 80 people have. I never had any symptoms, and my blood work was excellent.
The doctors said I had about 2 years to live but I'm still going.
37. The Milk Of Human Kindness
I was visiting London with my grandpa and we were riding in a small public bus. And on this bus there happened to be a little person. A young schoolgirl (probably because her mother told her to) approached her and offered up her seat to the woman.
The woman then rudely yelled, " What, because I'm a dwarf!? I've been a dwarf my whole life and I've managed just fine without any help!" The poor girl sat down, all red in the face. But a while later at another stop, a woman stood up and before exiting, she tapped the little person on the shoulder and said, "I'll be getting off now. My seat’s empty if you'd like to take it”.
Only, just as the little person started to carry on, the woman cut her off and yelled, "No! Not because of that! Because you're a human being deserving of respect! And I must say you were very rude to that poor girl when she was just trying to be nice. And I hope that when you're getting ready for bed tonight, Snow White kicks in your door and kicks your butt!”
Then she got off, leaving the little person standing there wide-eyed and slack-jawed while the rest of us were sat there just looking at one another.
Krakenimages.com, Shutterstock
38. It’s All Too Much
Last year in August, my 99-year-old grandmother fell and broke her leg. She went to the hospital and shortly after, to a nursing home to rehab. Around the same time, my brother was having stomach issues and ended up in the ER and then the hospital for a few days for liver issues.
He was close to needing a full transplant but luckily ended up okay. At the same time, my mother landed in the hospital due to some absolutely terrible headaches she was having. The doctors quickly determined she had fluid around her brain and kept her there for a few days to run tests.
The day my mom left the hospital, November 3rd, my grandma passed about 20 minutes before my mom arrived at her house to say hello. One week later, some results came back from my mom's testing, showing that she had stage four metastatic brain cancer.
Further testing showed she had cancer in her lung, liver, and lymph nodes. Her brother, my uncle, had Lewy Body Dementia at the time and passed just days after her first chemo treatment on December 23rd.
The stress of all of this unfortunately got to my other uncle, their brother, who had a heart attack and passed on January 10th. Just before he passed, my mom ended up in the hospital due to some clotting in her legs. She spent nearly three weeks there, slowly losing her ability to think, understand, and communicate before passing away on January 22nd, 2023.
When I tell people this story, I always have to preface it saying if it happened in a movie, I'd say it was too unrealistic because even though it happened to me, it still seems like it's too wild to be real. Almost the entire family was wiped away in the span of 3 months.
39. It’s Never The Right Time
On Valentine’s Day 2008, my boyfriend cheated on me, but I couldn’t confirm it. Two days later, on the 16th, I came home and saw he wasn’t sober. Long story short, I took the opportunity to catch him in a lie and he admitted to cheating on me.
We had been together for 4 years. The next day, on the 17th, his dad was over at our house (we lived together) building a fire pit. We rented a house from his dad, and his dad was fixing it up, trying to “flip it,” for a quick profit. I was inside packing my stuff because, uh, well, he got caught and admitted to cheating on me, and I was out.
While packing, someone banged on the bedroom window. I ignored it—some friends had spent the night, so I thought they were all in the backyard goofing around. A few minutes later, another knock and then pounding.
I walk through the house to the back door to say to them to stop banging on the door, and I see my soon-to-be ex-boyfriend on the phone, pacing and screaming “Dad!” I look at his Dad, and he is laid out on the floor, snoring and unconscious, and the people who had stayed over are just standing there in shock.
I ask what happened, and he said his dad was sweating a lot, sat down, his arms locked up straight out in front of him, and then he fell back. I monitored him closely, waiting for the ambulance. Then he stopped breathing. I ended up doing CPR on him for over 10 minutes, which was literally exhausting.
It was working for a while, but then, before the ambulance got there, he exhaled into my mouth and went really limp. His eyes were still open but there was no life behind them. I kept doing CPR because everyone else was there watching and I didn’t want to be the one to announce what I knew had just happened.
The ambulance FINALLY arrived, and they did the shock paddles on him several times. Nothing. He was pronounced DOA at the hospital, and I did not leave my ex that day. I stayed three more years. I wish I hadn’t, but how do you dump someone the day their dad has a heart attack and dies right in front of them?
40. This Father Is No Genius
I learned that my father was not a good man at a very early age. For context, my oldest brother was literally a genius. He graduated high school before he turned 13. He got his bachelor's degree before getting his driver's license, and his 18th birthday was spent doing paperwork for a graduate program.
My father was so proud of him at every step, with every accomplishment, and he expected similar greatness from the rest of his kids. It went sour fast. My childhood was spent with him forcing wildly complicated things onto me so I could "discover my genius".
Everything from technical manuals and medical textbooks to musical instruments and giant books were things I was made to try and get through. I did great for a little kid, but not for a genius. I managed. My sister wasn't so lucky. She struggled a lot with what she was given, but most 3-year-olds would.
It's rare for a 3-year-old to be able to do math, let alone count to 10, but that was what my father expected. He ended up losing his mind one day because she forgot what was after the letter E. I tried to speak up and he screamed at me to let her do it on her own.
He got so angry he threw her against the wall, screaming the alphabet at her as he started to kick her over and over. Each strike was accompanied by another letter, and I was frozen in fear. He stopped when my mother started coming upstairs, but when she took both of us out of the room, she knew what had happened.
I still remember the look on her face. I wish with every fiber of my being this was a lie. I wish my sister could live a normal life. I wish I wasn't compelled to think about this every time I see a father and daughter together out in the world. I wish it wasn't true...but it is.
41. Once In A Lifetime
When I was young, we used to visit my family in a separate province. One time they invited our extended family out. I hadn’t met most of them, but my dad introduced me to “cousin J”. He only had one arm, and I asked my dad privately what had happened.
Apparently, He was riding horseback in a storm on his farm to get his animals to safety. Lightning struck him and his arm came clean off. His wife found him, and he lived. My dad asked him to show me the lightning scars.
He was an awesome dude, and he loved to bake. He made cheesecake by himself for everyone that weekend. I was honestly even more impressed by this, because I can’t even bake with two arms.
42. A Ceiling Surprise
The first day at my university accommodation, I noticed a stain on the ceiling. I reported it to building services and they said they'd check it out in the morning. That night, the possum remains that had been up there deliquescing for who knows how long fell onto my bed.
I woke up with the thump, turned my lamp on, saw the maggots busy cleaning up the skull, screeched in a way not really in character for my 6-foot frame, and woke up everyone else on the same floor.
They were nice enough to move me to a new room that very night, and the next day one of the mental health counselors asked me if I needed to talk about it. This being my first year of university, I drank away the pain.
Krakenimages.com, Shutterstock
43. Hitting The Bull’s Eye
When I was 12 years old, my cousin gave me some throwing knives he picked up from a flea market. I was anxious to use them but had to wait for my parents to leave. Once I had my opportunity, I went downstairs in our unfinished basement where I had a dart board set up against a slab of particle board leaning up against the wall.
From about 10 feet away, on my first try, I stuck all three throwing knives, back to back to back, smack, on the bullseye. For 12-year-old me, I felt like a freaking ninja assassin. But who could I tell? Who would have believed 12-year-old Greg?
44. All Dogs Go To Heaven
When I was in middle school, I had a dream that I was in one of our school hallways where my cousin's dog was just sitting there. She was sort of wispy, blueish in color, and a bit transparent. The dog ran up to me. I remember I was able to give her a hug and pet her, told her she was a good dog, etc.
She then ran down the hallway and I felt a bit saddened. I woke up the next morning and found out that the dog had passed the prior evening...still spooks me a bit.
45. Clicking Into Place
No one ever actually said that they didn't believe me, but when I tell the story, I can see the skepticism in their eyes. I was on a trip to Disneyland, and I was riding a roller-coaster when the thing on my shoulders, that was supposed to protect me, got loose and moved more than a foot away from my body.
With crazy reflexes, I moved it close to my body again and it clicked perfectly this time. The rest of the ride was a nightmare. I almost cried when it was done.
46. The Dark Night
I met Christian Bale on the stranger social media site Omegle. He was wearing just a pair of boxers. We had a forty-minute discussion on Dark Side of the Moon. I swear to you, this happened.
47. A Mother’s Worst Nightmare
My epidural failed during the emergency c-section. I likely had listeria, my temperature was 103+ and then the monitor for my baby’s heartbeat went quiet-type emergency. I had the epidural in place for a while before things went wrong. No one in the OR believed me when I started telling them, then YELLING at them that I wasn’t numb anymore.
It happened after they had gotten through all the parts of me to get to baby, so I asked my husband if the baby was out. He said yes and the tiny control I had left departed. I was screaming at everyone that I could FEEL them and their metal paddles in my body!
The nurse by my head reassured me it was “just pressure” so my dumb self decided I was gonna get the heck out. I planted my feet on the table and tried to lift myself to scoot away from the people who, in my mind, were now tormenting me.
My husband says it looked like a seance or a magic trick where the person covered by a sheet levitates off the table/bed. I made a huge mess, too, since I did it kind of fast. I sent a bowl full of bloody gauze flying up to hit the ground, tools clattered.
I remember the poor anesthetist got yelled at while trying to give me propofol, then lights out finally.
48. Timing Is Everything
In math class when I was 12 years old, our teacher noticed his watch had stopped. It messed up the timing of our class since he didn't realize how close to the end of our hour he was. The next day, he didn't come to school and we had a replacement lesson.
When he came back a few days later, it turned out his dad had passed unexpectedly…exactly at the time the watch had stopped.
49. Plan, Backfired
My mom was cooking my eighteenth birthday dinner and I was down the road at a friend’s house celebrating before I went home. Mom went to get the mail and found a letter. When she read it, she nearly dropped it. It was from an attorney saying he found out my dad filed for divorce and wanted to be her lawyer.
Well, this was news to her. My mom peeled down the block in the minivan and pulled over to the side of the road where my friends and I were outside and announced it to me. My dad came home five minutes later to just me and no mom.
He was like hey time to celebrate! With a bunch of presents and stuff. It was so awkward. Yep, my mom found out my dad filed for divorce five minutes before my birthday dinner started when I was turning eighteen. He had waited until the last second because he didn’t want to pay a cent of child support.
50. I’m A Survivor
I had routine stomach surgery in 2015. Thankfully it ended up being keyhole surgery, so there was minimal scarring/drama and they thought that I’d be home in 1-2 days max. 2 days later I was still in hospital. I wasn’t well.
Tachycardia, temperature, swelling etc. But I got up that morning, had a shower, and got dressed as the nurses said it was normal after some surgery to be a little off. My mom had tried telling them (she’s a nurse and midwife) that she thought I may have an infection.
She was accused of being neurotic. Later that day, it went extremely awry. I started to drift in and out of consciousness and they eventually did an emergency CT Scan. Turns out the surgeon had nicked my bowel. I had a 2 cm rip in it and was dying from sepsis.
My parents were told to say goodbye to me as staff physically ran me through the hospital in my bed and straight back into the theatre (I’m talking medical drama style). The nurse had hold of my hand and ran next to the bed, telling me she’d better see me at the other side.
They had to fully open me up. I ended up with a 8 inch scar down my stomach, a 3 liter wash out, 40 staples, a drain, and 3 more weeks in hospital while I fought against septic shock and my organs shutting down.
Morphine pump, blood transfusions, antibiotics out the wazoo……..They told me that as I already had PCOS and now I have huge internal scarring, the predicted infertility was pretty much a 99% certainty now. Plus, if by some miracle I fell pregnant, I’d lose the baby or be unable to carry to term. Aside from some scarring on my bowel which can be painful occasionally and the scar down my stomach, I’m tip top now!
And I conceived twin girls naturally 4 years later. Survived sepsis, had children and I’m now happier than ever.
Sources: Reddit,
