Falisha May Graham Biography

My mother had picked me up after school. On our way home, we passed by the school where both my uncle Beto worked. There was an ambulance there and we thought maybe a teacher had an accident. Shortly after we get a phone call from my aunt Ana, it turned out that my uncle suffered a heart attack while working. No one saw him while he collapsed, until moments later a teacher saw him laying on the floor, shaking, trying to breathe. My mom and I rushed to the school to see how my uncle was responding to the paramedics. My aunt was already there, we had to take her to the hospital because EMS wouldn’t let her drive while she was still in shock. It was hard to see how the paramedics were trying to help him

It was the first Sunday of December morning when my father asked me to take some boxes to the basement, I had never been down there, as a kid I always thought it was scary, but know as a 19-year-old guy, how could I say no. I went downstairs with a couple of boxes, but could not find any place to put them. The area was a mess, so I decided that I would organize every box that was there. While I was organizing, I notice this one box hidden in the back, so, I decided to open it. Inside the box, there was a newspaper and a couple of burnt pictures. Therefore, I decided to read the article, I could not understand much, it was an 18 years old newspaper, but it talked about a burning house with two twin babies, It said that one had been saved with no harm while the other one was rescued later on with severe burn mark. It was a miracle that other baby had survived, they called him miracle Carlos, and his brother Richard. I stood there for a second before my brain processed

I was panicking I didn’t know what I did I thought I was in some kind of trouble, but when I got to the principal’s office, there were 2-3 police officers there waiting for me. They sat me down with a concerned look and told me some terrible news. These few words that I could never get out of my head. It’s as if there locked in a prison. They told me that my father was in an accident at first I thought that they were just talking about a car accident. I had no idea what to expect. Then they told me that my father had passed away I started balling my eyes out I didn’t know what to do. They soon drove me back to my house where I saw my brother and a few neighbors and friends. There were a few cop cars and an ambulance. I later found out that he had committed suicide. My aunt and uncle came and picked us up from my house and brought us to their house where they tried to cheer us up a bit it was my cousins birthday so we tried to have a

The night of December 9, 2011 was easily one of the worst of my life. It all started before I woke. At around 2:30 in the morning, my grandfather (Pepaw), who resided in Keyser, West Virginia, had fallen very ill. My step grandmother called my father to let him know that his father needed emergency surgery and asked him to travel to Keyser Hospital as soon as possible. After the first surgery was completed the doctors at the the Hospital determined that he needed an additional emergency surgery that they were not equipped to preform. At 5:30 A.M. he was Medevaced to Morgantown, West Virginia for the next surgery. After he arrived, the Morgantown Physicians assessed his vitals, and in consultation with the Keysers doctors, they determined that Pepaw was not strong enough to undergo the second

I was 33 years old on November 9th, 2000. My family was made of myself, my husband, Doug, my daughter, Haley, and our dog, Josie. Haley was only 2 years and 9 months old at the time of the birth of her new baby brother, but I wasn’t quite sure how she would handle not having all of the attention. I could tell something was off from the moment I woke up that day. To start, Haley wouldn’t stop crying from the moment she woke up. As for me, I was feeling sick, and was having a few contractions here and there. I was packing my things for the hospital because I was scheduled to have a C-section November 10th. Afternoon came and my condition was getting worse and worse, things got so bad that Doug and I decided we should go to the hospital. I was mortified because I just needed the baby to wait a couple more hours. I could not have this baby come out of the birth canal, my

The most traumatic event in my life was when my father passed away in 2005, when I was only seven. At first, I hadn’t understood his death. I knew what death was, and that it was permanent, but I hadn’t accepted the fact that he was gone until long after his death. My mother was a mess, and I was a confused second grader who could do nothing to help her. We began to go to counselors and psychologists, who all made me feel very uncomfortable. All they wanted was to talk about what had happened to my dad, when it was the last thing I wanted to say anything about. I laid in bed crying for a few weeks, knowing it was because of his death, but I felt emptiness rather than sadness or anger. My mother began to take medication for depression, and still continues to do so. At only seven, I believed her sadness was my fault. To be honest, I still feel hurt when I see her taking the depression medication. I know that I had nothing to do with his death, but it granted me with an unwelcoming sense of guilt. I had just been with him the night before his death, and now he had been cremated into a bag of ashes. All of my teachers were very precautious about mentioning him, and I didn’t know how to process all the new attention I had received at school. I was definitely depressed, but I found a way out of my slump. I distracted myself from his death and did all of my school work from my absences as quickly as I could, and

Before my mom sent me and my dad off to find help, she was on the phone with the roadside assistance which seemed like forever. All of a sudden we then realized the gas station wasn’t that far down the road, at least that is what we thought. We started to walk to the gas station, our foots sinking in the mud, the cold mud rises to our ankles. We immediately turn around knowing that this wasn’t the right decision. The gas station was longer than we thought, it was not even visible. Trudging back to the car we come to find my mom on speakerphone with the phone ringing. It goes straight to

My mom kept saying "I have got to go see Fran. I need to see with my brother" My mom ran down stairs to get ready to go, I followed her and just stood there, still paralyzed. She hugged me and said that she loved me. I had never seen my mom so panicked. She went into the bathroom to take a shower and I could still hear her sobbing through the door. I was all by myself, now. I was standing in the middle of the family room as the words "He is dead" pierced my heart like daggers of ice. I was screaming OH, GOD NO, and started to cry uncontrollably. The realization that I would never see my uncle again struck me. After I got myself under control I went and packed my things to leave with my mother. As soon as we were done we were on the next flight to New Jersey.

I had just turned seven, pay parents had freshly moved into Maryland and were getting familiar to this new state. One day my parents went to go visit an old friend of theres. When we went over i played outside with my dads friends daughter's and my siblings. We were playing a game of soccer in there back yard, when suddenly I got an attack that had no warning i stopped breathing and I started to see flickering lights around my eyes. My new friends and siblings went to alert my parents of what has just occured. My parents left the humble family home and rushed me outside without asking where the nearest hospital was. They believed the nearest hospital was the Children's Hospital in Washington DC. My parents were in Laurel which is a 40min drive

We had just moved in March 2007 into my new house that my grandpa had built for us. I was so happy because I wanted to be closer to my grandma and grandpa. My grandpa was finishing up our house and his hip started hurting so he and my grandma went to the doctor. My mom was really stressed out because she didn't want anything bad to happen to him. One morning in April of 2007, my grandma and grandpa got a call from the bone specialist and they said that he had bone cancer and his hip was destroyed from it. Within the next few days they were planning hip replacement surgery. He had the hip replacement surgery and had to walk with a walker. Then things got worse because the cancer had now spread to his lungs and was stage 4 cancer. Within the next few months he had a massive stroke. Four days later my mom finds out my dad had stage 4 colon cancer and will not make it very long. One day later my grandpa took his last breath while holding my grandma’s hand. My mom was very upset about my grandpa dying and my grandma was screaming for him to come back. They had to take my grandma into another room so the funeral home could come in and get the body. My dad was still doing good at this time but then things changed.

One afternoon, my father and his new family, which included his wife and her daughter, we were headed to get something to eat. At least, that is what they had told me. We left their house and headed in the direction of restaurants on the main street. I soon realized we were at a plaza of some sort that I had never seen before. Earlier that week, my stepmother had advised my father that he might want to take me to see a therapist. I could not believe it. What did they think, I was crazy or something? We all walked in as a “family.” Prior to being called back, we sat in the lobby where I heard a voice that asked how we all felt.

February twenty-third 2010 was just a regular ordinary day. I was on my way to class on this cold February afternoon, when my phone rung. It was my cousin on the other end telling me to call my mom. I could not figure out what was wrong, so I quickly said okay and I hung up and called my mom. When my mom answered the phone I told her the message but I said I do not know what is wrong. My mom was at work and could not call right away, so I took the effort to call my cousin back to see what was going on. She told me that our uncle was in the hospital and that it did not look good. Starting to tear up I pull over in a fast food restaurant parking lot to listen to more to what my cousin had to say. She then tells me to tell my mom to get to

It was a bone chilling January night; my mom received a call at about 11:15 PM, a call that changed my life forever. My Aunt June was on the other line. She was crying so hard my mother could barely understand her. Through the sobbing my mom finally understood that Brian, my cousin, had been in a horrible accident and she didn’t know how bad it was. My mother jumped out of the bed after she hung up the phone. She screamed up the stairs at my sister and me; it was a nerve shrilling scream. I could hear fear in her voice. My mom was always yelling at us growing up if we forgot to do something. She would even get us out of bed to finish something that wasn’t done completely. This particular

Devastated, I ran to my room gushing my eyes out. All these emotions going through my head of how my life would be without my parents in the same room or even house. From what I remember it all started about mid-June, the weeks before that were crucial. My parents would always argue over how to deal with a situation between me and my brother, Skyler. They hardly spoke to one another, but when they did they would just start bickering. I remember, one night after dinner they both went into ''their'' room with the door locked yelling at one another. Skyler and I didn’t know what to do, so we went downstairs and tried to figure out what was going to happen. With a scared tone I asked if mom and dad were going to get a divorce?" He answered back '' No, they love each other, they wouldn’t do that to us." That following night, was a school night everything was quiet except for my crying. I couldn’t sleep; all I was thinking about how it's going to affect my family.

Life continued normally until October 25rd, 2014. I came home from working at Pinter’s Dead Shed knowing something was off simply based on people’s attitudes around me. I was repeatedly asked about my well-being by fellow Dead Shed workers, and everyone was being more friendly toward me than usual. Adding to the strange vibes, when I got home my dad had parked outside of his normal place, in the middle of the driveway. As I walked in, all of the lights in our house were on, and my dad sat alone in the living room. I approached him even though his face was scaring me. I barely ever see my dad emotionally impacted by something, so I knew it was serious.