- [Annette] When I was little, I sort of had that, "I want to meet my happily ever
after. My prince." You know? And have the dream, the fairytale.
That was something that was very alluring to me as a little girl.
Something I thought about a lot, and then, when I met Bill, thought it was sort of
a dream come true.
- [Bill] It just dawned on me out of nowhere that, you know, this was the love
of my life and who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.
We were transitioning into a new place where we thought
we'd build a family and be for the rest of our life, and then,
all of a sudden, she announces that she's pregnant with Anna,
which was wonderful. And, you know, that's when it happened.
- My water broke, I think, around maybe 11:00 at night.
I took a shower, which is just a really, really serious moment for me,
taking that shower. Because I remember going into the shower, saying a prayer
about the birth and delivery to the Blessed Mother, and
that was my last time standing.
I had a really striking pain that went down both my legs when she injected the
chemical into my back. I mean, I've never...that wasn't the experience I'd had
with Natalie. So, to me, it was something really off the charts, you know?
I was like, "This is not right." I knew right away it wasn't right.
- I put my faith in the doctor, in the system, in the people there.
That's why you're at the hospital. You're taken care of.
They're supposed to take care of you and do no harm.
- A neurologist came in, a woman, and sat down at the end of the bed.
She said, "You had a spinal cord injury. Do you know what that is?" and I said,
"No." I mean, I didn't know what she was talking about, and they didn't realize
at that point it was the epidural.
- I remember walking out with the doctor, the neurologist,
and asking her, "Well, you know, what are we talking about here?"
and she said to me that she might not walk again.
♪ [music] ♪
- At that point, I was in survival mode. I wanted to survive for my family.
I wanted to make sure that we were all going to be together and okay.
Sometimes I felt guilty, though, like that he would have had a better life without
me. But at that time, he was amazing. He has never looked at me as anything
but his bride. We definitely worked through all of that together,
and we became incredibly close.
- For me, love is unconditional. I know that's what we have,
from Annette to me, and from me to Annette. Annette's helped me as much as
I've helped her. A lot of people don't know that, but she has helped me
as much as I've helped her, in different ways. That's what love and marriage is.
So, when I talked to her about it, it was never a definitive, like, "This is the way
it's going to be." You know, go on with the life and dream
that we had prior to the accident.
- But, like, when I would try to, like, dance with the girls in the kitchen,
I just found that incredibly awkward. I found doing almost everything awkward.
There was just sort of an innocence that was lost with it, and a naivete,
and the belief that everything will work out in the end,
or all the pat things that people say.
- [Bill] You know, I love her with all my heart, and the kids, and I know it's not
easy, but we're all here for each other, and that's what is going to help us get
through this to the next half of the adventure.
- I like to write. A lot of people write their way out of their
situations, and I sort of thought I wanted to do that. Life has a sort of
bittersweetness that it probably has for everyone, you know? And I'm more at peace
with that now after writing the book. The girls will really appreciate it later.
I know they will. More as women, young women.
- [Ingrid] It means a lot to me because, like, it's just like everything's in it.
Like, just being able...I feel like when I'm older, like, I'll go look back at it
and just, like, realize, just see how everything was, and how my mom
like, dealt, with everything.
- I'm so glad I finished it just for that alone. For them.
Oh! That's a lot of dough, Georgia! - [Mia] Georgia, did you just
eat all of that? - Spit it out!
- I think I want them to learn love being bigger than ourselves.
- [Anna] My parents, like, in sickness and in health, they've stayed together,
and, like, it just showed me that when you love someone, you know that love
is real when if something like that happened, like, you want to stay with
them forever, no matter what.
- [Annette] You know, I'll never know this for sure. But if I could know that
someday, know that that's what they got from this, I think I could say,
"Okay, it was worth it."
You guys are my reason for living.
- I love you, mommy. - [Together] We love you, mom.
♪ [music] ♪