Lessons Learned from My Grandmother's Death

It was near the end of winter 2005, when my grand-aunt suddenly fell ill. In a short period of time her illness worsened and the doctors informed my family, my grand-aunt only had a couple of months to live. The news was devastating to my family as we watched a vivacious, independent, and outspoken woman, who enjoyed shopping, reading mystery novels and spending time with family become very weak and confined to her bed. Instead of placing my grand-aunt in a hospice facility, my family and I, with the assistance of a hospice nurse cared for my grand-aunt in her home until her passing.

Making it through hard times is challenging but worth it at the end. “Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret to success.” - Swami Sivananda

In life we may go through hardships that take us down a path that benefits us in the future and make us stronger individuals. These hardships can influence a person’s life by making us face obstacles we don’t want to face and

“The soul that knows it not knows no release from the little things: knows not the livid loneliness of fear.” –Amelia Earhart. When trying to accomplish your goals, not everything will go as planned. Very rarely will you just be handed what you want. When you work for something, sometimes you will fail. You will be told you weren’t the best choice or you were good, but just not what they were looking for. And it hurts. It beats you down and steals your confidence. But failure is the best teacher. Failure makes you stronger and builds you up to be the best you can. It can be challenging to try again

Imagine having the perfect life- you get into all honors classes, you get straight A’s, you are the first chair in the orchestra, you get into the A Cappella choir, you are on the varsity volleyball team, President of the Student Council, and you have a perfect home life. You have never had to face a single obstacle throughout your journey in life. When your whole life is like this, you do not know what failure feels like and will never experience the need to rise up after a downfall. There are many types of journeys one can take in life and dealing with obstacles has a prodigious impact on the outcome. The obstacles and hindrances are the things that shape us as we experience the ups and downs in life.

Who in your life has caused you to become a better person? For some people it's a parent who has shaped you since the day that you were born. For others it's the stranger who always says hi to you when you see them on the street. Maybe it’s the couple down the block who struggles to make ends meet, but always has a positive attitude. It may even be the person who has hurt you the most. These people make us a better person even when we least expect it. I never realized the effect my grandmother had on my life until she stopped recognizing me.

At some point in everyone’s life they will face a hardship; it is merely a matter of when not if. Struggles can influence someone's life by forcing them to power through a hard time.

However, obstacles in your way to success, are what make your achievement more worthwhile in the end. Oprah Winfrey one of the most influential women in history is a strong example of this statement. She fought through so much to get to where she is now. In her words, her main struggle was poverty; her living conditions were harsh and she barely ever had enough to keep her going. However, if you ask her now she would tell you that it made her experience of creating success and building success that much more rewarding. The things that held her back are the things that eventually made her move forward. She would doubt herself and her abilities, but if it weren't for the few people in her life that gave her the support and the strength she needed, she might have given up. These things made her the brilliant and confident woman she is today. The obstacles in your life create character and change you as a

I think the grandmother was killed last not because she was the only one pleading for her life, or the fact that she was the only one to recognize who the misfit’s were. I think it was for the shear please the misfit’s felt by making her suffer. Had they killed the grandmother first, with little to no interaction from the other family member the story and plot would be

Whenever I have challenges in school, like a hard test coming up or a big project, I accept it and work as hard as I can to get a good score. I don’t say ‘Why me’ and whine about it forever. For example, one time our math teacher told us that we had our midterm coming up that would count for a big chunk of our grade. As soon as she notified us, I started to study, determined to do good. I reviewed all of the previous material and got an A+ on the test. I faced it head on and came up with better results than if I had just given up and complained about it. Facing my situations with that attitude has made it easy to do well in school and the result proves the meaning of the quote to be

Although we are pushed towards goals of success, I have come to understand how important failure is. It is only when I failed that I would push myself harder. I realized that through the difficult courses and late nights that it was the times I had failed that had made me a stronger and more diligent worker.

One of the most nerve-racking moments of my life was when I found out my grandma had colon cancer. I knew something was wrong from the point she told me that something was upsetting her stomach. She finally went to the doctor and then had a CAT scan, which found nothing. Then she was taken to the hospital for a colonoscopy, and diagnosed with colon cancer. I couldn’t believe what was happening, I love my grandma so much and this really hit me hard.

I slowly turned the first page of the worn and fragile book. The Instrument contained numerous words of wisdom, or so I had heard from my biological grandma, I lifted it to my face. Did it hold the solution to my problems? The woman of my childhood was convinced that it did. It smelled of leather with lingering traces of tobacco. Grandma held the book often, I remembered, envisioning her in my mind many years past, when I went for a visit to my grandparents house. After supper she sat in the rocker near the fireplace, from time to time taking a break from her reading to step outside and smoke. I didn't like the smell of the cigarettes. Never the less that was the way grandma was. She was an intriguing woman. She didn’t say much in her later

On my grandma’s birthday one of my family member were arrested. My family was throwing a party for my grandma. We were eating and playing games. While we're eating and playing games the phone rang. My grandpa picked up the phone and it was the court house. My uncle was on the other side of the line he was explain the he was in jail for theft. My grandpa told my grandma the story. My grandma had her heart broken one of her kids went to jail. She had a goal that none of her kids would not go to jail. She felt horrible she didn’t accomplish her goal. My grandparents hurried to the police station. The Judge told my uncle he will be in jail for 2 months. My grandparents were crying they didn't want to see any of their kids go to jail.

Many turning points have occurred in my life, but I would say one really sticks out for me. This was when my granddad died in 2010. I talked about this event and how it affected my life in a thought piece earlier this year, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to elaborate on such a life changing event.