A Memory With My Family

I remember waking up that morning anticipating his arrival into our room. We went to get breakfast down in the hotel restaurant. We talked the entire time about exciting it was to finally meet my new little brother. We finished up breakfast and headed back up to the hotel room to get ready for the day. We were not supposed to meet my brother until later in the day, so we decided to do a

It was Wednesday morning, 6:30am, and yes I had to go to school. I remember calling and begging, asking if I could take the day off, but mom wasn’t having any of it, so I had to get ready. The pain was gone, which I was fortunate about, but I still felt ill. I hopped into the shower, washed up, and when I got out I collapsed. White light again, but this time it was all I could see. I closed my eyes. I was on the floor, unable to move. After what seemed like an eternity, I finally opened my eyes. I went straight to my bed, and fell asleep. I woke up a mess, and felt worse than before. I looked at my phone, and saw at least six hundred missed called from mom. I called her, fearing for what was to come. “WHERE ARE YOU? WHY DIDN’T YOU GO TO SCHOOL?” She screamed. “I’m at home. I didn’t go to school because I feel worse than before. I really need to go to the hospital.” I whimpered. She told me that we’ll go when she comes back from work, and I agreed. Back to sleep I went. I wake up to my mom rushing into my room. She signaled to get ready by moving her head quickly forty-five degrees to the left. I got ready to leave, and we left at around

You could hear the ambulance's loud sirens as they came closer to our house. They grabbed bags from the ambulance. My sister ran outside to lead the paramedics to my mom. They reached into their bag a

Tears poured down my face like I was in a rain forest, hugged my mom tightly as if she was a cuddly stuffed animal and I prayed, prayed like I’ve never prayed before. Not really knowing what was going on or what was going to happen. My sister arrived home, followed by my dad shortly after. While we waited to hear back from the hospital, we sat on the couch in the living room bawling our eyes out probably. Don’t worry, I will tell you about what is going on.

An ambulance came and carried out my mom. I didn’t know what was going on, so many questions running through my mind, what was wrong with her, was she going to be ok. I was scared, more scared then I had ever been. My sister Sheridan who was 8 asked me “what’s happening?” through tears. On that day a little piece of me began to change because if I let her see my fear that would not help anyone, and so even though I didn’t know what was happening I responded “everything is going to be ok” even though I did not trust my own words.

t was the moment I had been waiting months for. The comforting aromas of bread and tea met my nose the instant I stepped through the doorway. Beautifully-written, thought-provoking books sat on the shelves, waiting to be read while soft strains of celtic lullabies floated through the halls. Excitedly, I bolted up the entryway steps to the arms of some of the most meaningful people in my life- Bumma and Boppy.

Grandma and Grandpa are probably some of the most amazing people in the world. I am really blessed to be so close with grandma and grandpa. Both distance wise and relationship wise. I don’t even know where to start. Between all the cooking lessons, rock shows, R.V. shows, birthdays, track meets, concerts, holidays, dinners, snakes, shopping trips and so on I have a lot of ground to cover in not a lot of time. I’ll start with the cooking lessons.

Much to my disappointment the baby hadn 't been born yet, and my sister-in-law, was still in the beginning stages of labor, and it could be hours, or even days before she gave birth. We stayed at the hospital all day in hopes that the baby might be born. We mostly wandered around because my sister-in-law understandably wanted to be left alone, for the majority of the day. We went to the gift shop, and the cafeteria, but mostly just aimlessly walked around, awaiting news. News never came, and soon enough we were forced out of the hospital, because visiting hours were over.

Upon arrival at the small town hospital, my mom was rushed to a room in the back. Having been told that she will be out soon, my dad and I sat down in the uncomfortable waiting room chairs patiently waiting for the nurse to come back and tell us that we all

We looked at each other, stood up, and headed down the big hallway and around the corner to find my mom gasping at the fact that her water had broken. This was a surprise seeing as she was not due to give birth to my little sister for another two weeks. Once again, we were out the door and in the car. My grandmother did not put me in my car seat right and I remember struggling to free my arms the entire ride. My mom sat in the front seat yelling and muttering words under her breath. I was afraid because my mom was in such a strange state but I soon realized that she was yelling more at my grandmother than at her painful stomach. Every time we approached traffic, she gasped and turned behind her with her hand on my car seat, as to secure me from some ejecting force. It was not until years later that I was told all of the stories about what a terrible driver my grandmother was and how many cars she destroyed in various "incidents," as my grandfather calls them. We reached the hospital in plenty of time, but with one problem remaining, my grandfather and dad remained uninformed and unreachable as the resided among thousands of intoxicated football fans. They arrived in just enough time to see my mom before she had my sister, but not without strategic methods to get a hold of them. They first had to be paged over the intercom and when that seized to succeed, event staff members were sent to find them standing

Mercy Hospital was only a 11 minute drive from my house at the time. The only problem with that was my mother having to take the bus while a whole blizzard was going underway. In Chicago busses run from six in the morning till around one in the morning with each bus passing within 13 min intervals. My father was at work his shift was from one in the morning until around noon at that time. Surprisingly enough, she got on that very first bus feeling those awful contractions and she pushed through them. Once she arrived at the hospital she called my dad who was worried that she was alone in the hospital. My aunt arrived at the hospital 30 minutes later to accompany my mother and later my dad arrived. My father had never seen any of his other 3 daughter being born, so I was his first. The pain my mother was put through was excruciating. It was a very emotional, yet painful day. “It’s Twins!” the doctor tells my mother and father. It was a very unexpected moment. They pull my little sister out first, the doctor looks down and tells my parents that she was dead. Her little skin gave off this burnt look all around. The doctors never explained what exactly happened to her, my mother certainly didn’t look like she was having twins. It hardly seemed as if she was having one baby for that matter. My father was cried as he held my little sister and my mother didn’t have

“Mom we will be there as soon as possible, let me know if you find anything out.” I was out in the hallway of our house as my mom finished talking, and already there were Kaylinn and Isaiah, who must have heard my end of the conversation. We hopped in the car, a small silver Saturn, and drove away. It felt like it took forever. Because we were all so worried, none of us talked the whole way there. Once we got to the hospital the three of us kids ran through the hospital like you see in the movies frantically searching for our mother. Once we found our mom, she gave us all a quick hug and said “The doctors haven’t come back with any news about your

The twins said their last goodbys to their mother and the images of their sorrow are clear in my mind. Two days later we received a call from the organ donor organization. Our daughter's organs had saved three lives and, thanks to her generosity, two strangers now see. When I heard this news I sobbed uncontrollably.

Since she had delivered the night before, we had to utilize a wheelchair to transport her to the NICU. On our long walk to the NICU, I asked my dad what NICU meant. He explained that it stood from Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. When he explained this to me, I was terrified by the big words and wondered if something was wrong with my baby sister. So when we arrived to the NICU check in center, I asked a nurse if my sister was okay. She had warm brown eyes, a gentle smile on her face and auburn hair that fell past her shoulders. She chuckled and told me that my beautiful baby sister was just fine, and that NICU was just a fancy name for where they kept all the babies. I breathed a sigh of

We all got into the car and immediately my sister was bombarded with questions. “Is he ok?”, “What happened?”, “Who is with him?” She answered each one to the best of her knowledge. She told us that his heart had stopped and started back up again, and that Mama (my Mom) and Papa (my Dad) were at the hospital with him. The car ride there was a very scary ride, because we were all so frightened by what had happened.