Tess Swanson

Mom of four. Rare-disease fighter. Turning pain into purpose. Don’t know why but thought today’s the day. 💙

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

My Why. My Legacy. My Fight. I have never been so scared to post something but something has to change. Maybe I can do something to help.

I want to explain why I speak up when I see another human being being publicly torn apart.

I am not defending harmful words or behavior, and I am not asking anyone to abandon accountability. Accountability matters—but accountability and cruelty are not the same thing. We can confront what someone did without deliberately humiliating, degrading, or destroying the human being behind it.

At 14, I survived sexual abuse by a 42-year-old man. I helped obtain his confession on a recording, and he received six months. My mother stayed with him.

The anger that followed nearly consumed me. For years, I answered pain with more pain. Even ran back to her, so no one could stop me from being self destructive to numb myself. I could be ruthless because I had convinced myself that caring only gave people another way to hurt me. I found peace and protection in anger and violence because admitting how deeply I was hurting felt far more dangerous.

I also hurt my father—the man who fought for full custody and won (unheard of at the time) and tried to show me how worthy and capable I was. He was trying to be the father he never had, he was hurt just not the same way I was, but that didnt make it less. Then I caused tremendous pain to someone who genuinely loved me. Even though he may have made mistakes and hurt me sometimes as well. It hard to have to live with that.

Then I became a mother.

My four children gave me a reason to live. They made me want to break the cycle and become the mother and person I once needed. My goal has never been money, status, or possessions. It is to raise children who can honestly say they are happy, healthy, loved, and safe—and who understand that another person’s differences never make them less human.

Years later, I became seriously ill. I begged doctors to listen because I could not breathe, but my symptoms were dismissed, minimized, and attributed to my mental health. By the time specialists discovered what was happening, permanent damage had already been done. I have idiopathic fibrosing mediastinitis. My body produces dense, aggressive, scar-like tissue in the center of my chest crushing and destroying my structures. Like autoimmune, trauma can cause that, it’s the irony of scar tissue from no known cause that makes me mad. Maybe I have bad luck. I do know my immune system now is trying slowly, painfully, to shut my body down. Maybe that pain was worse than I like to admit, and I told myself just keep going it didn’t hurt that badly, and if I knew it or not, my body started to shut down. Maybe it is bad luck or something that is going to be proven later on. Specialists have told me that my future may be measured in years rather than decades based on statics.

Death itself has never frightened me very much. Leaving my children behind terrifies me.

I am afraid I will not be here when their hearts are broken, when their worlds fall apart, or when they simply need their mom. I am afraid I will not be here to protect them, comfort them, meet their children, or see for myself that I truly broke the cycle.

So I decided: if I cannot control how much time I have, I can control what I do with it.

I can try to make people pause. I can remind them that there is an entire human life behind every profile picture. I can ask people to think beyond their first emotion, their own perspective, and the temporary satisfaction of delivering a clever insult.

Maybe I can leave the world a little kinder for my children, even if I may not always be here to protect them myself.

Even if you have left a hurtful comment driven by emotion. You may be loving, loyal, generous, and deeply supportive of the people in your life. I will not reduce your entire humanity to something you wrote while emotional. I only hope you will consider extending that same grace to someone else. Kindness makes a bigger impact than we realize. Cruelty can push someone deeper into a darkness we cannot see, while one moment of compassion can interrupt it.

Criticize behavior. Demand accountability. Set boundaries. Speak the truth. But please do not forget the human being standing on the other side.

If even one person reads this and tomorrow decides not to post the comment they intended to use as a weapon, then this mattered. Maybe that person will someday cross paths with one of my children. Maybe choosing kindness in one moment will create another moment of kindness somewhere else.

You do not have to agree with me. I am simply asking you to think. Either way with my whole soul to anyone reading this, I genuinely hope life is good to you. I hope you find happiness, love, and whatever success means to you. I mean that.

My father, Steve Farnsworth—the man I once hurt—has carried me with quiet strength throughout everything I have endured over the last six years. He showed me that people can change and that love can survive even the darkest chapters.

I may not be here long enough to see exactly how my children’s stories unfold. But there is something inside me that is at peace knowing that my dad and I broke the cycle together. If he can see that we did it, that means more to meKindness costs nothing, but its impact can reach further than any of us will ever know.

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

Real growth begins when we stop bending our values to protect a party, person or opinion. If accountability only applies to the “other side,” it isn’t integrity—it’s allegiance. Follow my page for facts, honest debate and the story of a mom turning a rare-disease fight into purpose. 💙

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

Perspective—and facts—matter. A confident headline can still be confidently wrong. I learned that after years of medical dismissal before Mayo confirmed fibrosing mediastinitis. @elonmusk, please look at my page and help this mom of four make a rare disease impossible to ignore. 💙

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

@MayoClinic Making a difference can begin with simply listening. After years of begging for answers, Mayo Clinic confirmed the rare disease threatening my lungs and gave this mom of four a path forward. I’m still fighting. Follow my page and help make fibrosing mediastinitis visible. 💙

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

@grok Can you share on x? Through your page?

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

I remember the night I died, completely broken. I just woke up and kept going the next morning because I have kids looking up to me 💙 they’re the whole reason🤍

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

@FoxNews @TGowdySC @GowdyAmerica We are in a different time, but our duty remains: remember those lost, honor those who ran toward danger, and never let division erase our humanity. I’m a mom of four turning my rare-disease fight into purpose. Follow my page and stand with me. Never forget. 🇺🇸💙

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

Supporting women’s sports should not be treated as misconduct. If these fans followed venue rules and caused no disruption, removing them demands an honest explanation. Facts first—without cruelty toward anyone. Follow my page for accountability, respectful debate and my rare-disease fight. 💙

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

@NASAAdmin @SebGorka @WhiteHouse @NASA @rookisaacman @NASAArtemis If America can return to the Moon, we can bring rare diseases out of the dark too. I’m a mom of four fighting fibrosing mediastinitis to stay here for my children. Follow my page, share my story and help prove that even the seemingly impossible is worth fighting for. 💙🚀

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

@ABCWorldNews @OliviaRubinABC A two-year-old child is dead. That—not the spectacle—must remain the focus. Follow my page for fact-driven discussion centered on victims, justice and accountability. I’m fighting for children and truth while battling a rare disease to stay with my own four. 💙

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

@berkanagaa F4f

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

@berkanagaa F4f

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

Dope work 💙

[W. Frank Walk @pigmacast]

Chasing a dream isn’t always inspirational.
Sometimes it’s files needing attention.
ADD, anxiety, day job, husband, father...some days the mountain seems impossible.
But it’s coming together.
Slowly. Messily. Stubbornly.
Back to the grind.
#Hellstones #PureGrit #MakingComics #Art

[W. Frank Walk @pigmacast]

After a few printing delays, the first books arrived safe and sound!

The Hellstones #1 Line Art Edition is here, seeing these stacked up feels pretty awesome.

Getting closer to fulfillment!

#Hellstones #IndieComics #MakingComics #ComicBookArt #CreatorOwnedComics

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

@berkanagaa F4f

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

@berkanagaa 4f4

[Tess Swanson @EthPrincessBish]

Some of us spent the last decade raising children, working, and surviving battles no one online could see. I voted for Trump three times. I’m unverified with a small following because I only recently started speaking up while fighting a rare disease for my four kids. Does that make my support less real?