I'm not sure I could pick out one particular day, but I've had a tough life in general.
At 2 1/2 years old, I got sick with meningitis, ended up losing my hearing because of it. Had to relearn everything again, like picking up Cheerios, crawling, walking etc. My mom told me that at some point after I lost my hearing, we were on the carousel and I had asked her why the music wasn't playing. At that point she and my dad agreed that they didn't want me to be deaf my whole life, so about a year after I first lost my hearing, I got my first cochlear implant. Had to undergo some pretty intense audioverbal therapy all they way up until I was in about 3rd grade, then I was doing good enough that I didn't need it as much anymore.
In 5th grade, my parents got divorced, I won't go into too much detail because everyone pretty much understands how these things go. They are still amicable and remain good friends, as much as I could expect I guess, so in that way, I'm pretty lucky.
After spring break in 6th grade, I developed an inner ear infection after getting swimmer's ear. Went through numerous treatment options like antibiotics, a "pic" line (basically an extended IV line that remains in your body and allows you to be treated at home) but none of them worked because the plastic from the cochlear implant gave the bacteria something to grow on and made it difficult to kill them off. Even tried surgeries to clean it up, but those didn't really work. So after multiple hospitalizations, the doctors concluded the only thing that could be done was another surgery to remove the implant, and then aggressively treat with antibiotics, which ended up working. At the start of 7th grade, got re-implanted (another surgery) in the other ear, but still had to go through the first month of school deaf. Finally got it turned on, dealt with adjusting to hearing through an ear that I hadn't used in 9 years.
Later that year, my grandmother developed breast cancer, scared the crap out of me to see her so sick from chemo/radiation, she's still dealing with it today.
11th grade, my mom developed the same breast cancer my grandmother had, went through all the same treatments. She dealt with that pretty well, even let me and my younger brother buzz her hair before she lost it, and cooked dinner for us after I got home coming from track practice, even though the sight of food was enough to make her nauseous. Eventually got the cancer to go into remission before I left for college.
Junior year in college, her cancer came back, it had metastasized to her skin. Went through a number of different chemo treatments/drugs before finding one that she was able to last on for a year and a half, until Nov. 2010. The cancer started coming back in her skin, and so she got a scan, found some tumor spots in her liver. The day she called me and told me this, I broke down and cried, thinking about 2 of our very close family friends that have died of liver complications.
Up until about 3 weeks ago, she struggled to find a treatment that was working on the spots in the liver. Before finding a drug that worked, which ironically, destroys her immune system to sh!t, the doctors told her that she had 6-12 months to live. She had to have a conversation with me about if something were to suddenly happen to her, what would be in her will, basically explaining the financial aspects of it and what would happen to my brother in terms of living/school situation.
Things are a bit better know, but I know the reality of the situation, which is, that people who have had her type of breast cancer come back average 2 years before dying. Its been 3, so far. I've come to accept the fact that chances are she won't see me get my Ph.D, or see my brother graduate high school.
So toughest day? I'm really not sure, I've had a lot of tough days. Moments of true happiness have been....fleeting, at best. Basically, life is hard. But it goes on.
I feel for everyone thats posted here, things like losing your kids have to be extremely difficult to get over. But the only thing we can do is be grateful, and really appreciate what we do have.