Losing My Grandmother to Cancer

My great-grandmother was the matriarch of my family. When I was in seventh grade, around thirteen years old, she passed away due to breast cancer. This misfortune created an extremely difficult time for me because, not only was I adjusting to the environment of junior high, but many other issues were occurring in my life; this was the third death that I was having to deal with. Unfortunately, one of the previous deaths (that I was still trying to hurdle through and come to terms with), had occurred almost exactly a year before the passing of my great-grandmother. The second death that I had gone through occurred only one or two months before my great-grandma has passed. All of this turmoil created numerous internal conflicts for me, but also taught me a key lesson to keep note of, for the rest of my life.

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.

“Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.” The words of the great Jimmy Valvano. Jimmy was a Men’s Basketball Coach at N.C. State University. He is one of the greatest coaches of all time. But he is also the man who delivered the “Never Give Up” speech at the ESPY Awards in 1993. This has inspired so many people. It’s the thought of Cancer that often brings Jimmy into mind. Stuart Scott is also very inspirational when it comes to cancer. A real inspiration is Mrs. Spatz. She has beat cancer 4 times. Over and over again, she has fought and beat cancer. She is now a teacher at Wyndcroft Private School in Pottstown. Although she is my mother, she creates inspiration for many

When my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, we were all very sad, but she believed that she could win. There are five stages of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. She never got to the stage of acceptance because she knew she was strong enough to fight this rigorous battle. Although she knew the cancer was inside of her, she never let it change her life. She always looked on the bright side of things and saw this illness as an opportunity to live life to the fullest and be with family more. Being optimistic makes her a hero because thinking on the bright side gave her a positive attitude and gave her the strength to fight against

Everyone goes through rough patches in their life. Some of these patches are easy to accomplish and easy to get over. Our medicine has gotten better over time, but years ago the survival rate wasn’t that good. My grandma whose name is Linda is a breast cancer survivor and also survived with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Not everyone in this world can say she has have survived cancer this many times, especially with such low survival rates. My Grandma still puts a smile on everyone faces even when she’s in pain. She makes all of her children and grandchildren beautiful quilts, so we can have something to remember her by, if something were to happen. She loves to bake. There isn’t one occasion that there won’t be some type of desert made by her. She has so many beautiful talents.

My grandmother, a single parent, has provided for me, my brother and two sisters over the past years; now it is my turn to take care of her. She taught me that education is extremely valuable. Questioning that belief, I joined the Army at seventeen, which taught me to defend others which led to my pursuit of criminal justice. Learning something new each day is the greatest gift of knowledge. My grandmother said the main thing a person needs to succeed is drive and passion. Her accomplishments showed me the importance of being independent and doing what you love, which impacted my life. She is what you could call “the rock” of our family she keeps

My grandma had survived a hard life, and yet managed to raise four responsible, well-educated, and successful children. All this she did while working as a respected psychiatric nurse and a state mental health board member. Although she had had and was still overcoming trials in life, I always knew she would be there and cared about me and my life. As my brother and I grew older and were unable to visit my grandparents as often as we

In October of 2016, my grandma passed away from a hard battle with cancer. My grandma was my rock, the person who always pushed me to be better, the person who was always encouraging me to keep going, and the person who inspired me the most. During the battle, I experienced a lot of adversity. Whether it was school or cross country meets, that feeling never seemed to go away.

I knew my grandma had smoked in the past and it was a stupid mistake, but why did cancer have to pick her? I knew my grandma could put up a really good fight, but with only one lung could she survive? Yes, with her past lung cancer she lost one of her lungs, but she has been living more carefully ever since. Connie Brooks is a selfless, confident, strong woman, and cancer chose the wrong woman and family to mess with.

In 2009, my grandmother had breast cancer. She underwent chemotherapy and all sorts of cancer treatments and was then told that her cancer had gone in remission. 3 years later, she started losing appetite and felt bloated all the time. She lost so much weight that I hardly recognized her. Aunt sent her for more scans, and turned out her cancer recurred. Aunt was the one who got her results. After a family discussion (without grandma), the decision was to not let grandma know it was cancer, but just an ordinary indigestion. Everyone was told to not even mention a word about ‘cancer’. Obviously, grandma did not receive treatments a normal cancer patient would receive, instead, she was told to practice ‘Qi Gong’ – a Chinese meditation which is believed to have healing effect. 6 months after her cancer recurrence, she passed away.

My grandmother, Esther Turner, has impacted my life in more ways than just simply being there for me, as a grandmother. She’s much more than that, in my eyes. Being the eldest of three, I’ve always taken on more responsibility as the older sister. It was my job to show my little brother and sister which paths were safe to take in this wild, confusing maze called life. At times, I felt like a mother myself, and at a young age, I found myself slightly intimidated by all the responsibilities that were laid on my shoulders. The main person I could talk to freely and openly, without judgment, was my grandmother. We have always been able to speak to each other about any and everything, nothing was off limits. That’s what I think brought us so close, the fact that she accepted me entirely for the person I presented to her.

One summer, when I was 11, I lived with my grandma. I was a very adventurous child and my grandma lives in the very south side of Laredo, so whenever I would go outside, she would make my older cousin would go with me. To keep me from going toward street, she would tell me that there was a 1,700 year old creature called “The Ripper” that would take small children, rip them of their skin, and eat their remains. Supposedly, it was snake like with faded blue and green scales, arms and legs with six claws each, full blazing yellow eyes, and a long tail with three rows of four sharp spikes. As you can tell, my grandma was really graphic and dramatic. In a way, her graphicness worked and kept me away from the street. She would tell my that if I had ever went to the street and it took me, she would never be able to get over the anguish she would feel. I was always so curious on where the creature lived; a house, on the streets, in the drains. My mission was to find out where it lived, and defeat it. I was really intimidated by it, but I knew that with my strength and confidence, I could do great things. Such as, defeat the old creature.

After her sons moved on into adulthood, my grandma learned Braille and taught cooking skills for the blind around Southern California. When her eyesight finally left her, she received Social Security and grew adamant about taking care of herself. That 's how I remember her. She would laugh when I offered to cook for her, and she cried when I told her I had become a vegetarian ("Oh my God, you 're never going to eat, what are you supposed to eat?”) She listened to audiobooks religiously, and touted her opinions on classic literature and the latest best-sellers. She was the most intelligent, opinionated, emotional human being I have ever met. As a child, I didn 't see her as disabled or dying. I saw her as vivacious and infinite and sharp. She wasn 't a black and white photograph from the past, she was dripping with color and she painted with her words.

Years later, I found out what [cancer] had taken my grandfather's life. Cancer is described in Merriam-webster’s Online Dictionary as “a malignant tumor potentially unlimited growth that expands locally by invasion and systemically by metastasis.” During his battle of lung pancreas and skin cancer, Lawrence WatSon once said, “ sometimes you do not realize how strong you are until you come face to face with your greatest weakness.” I have also seen many people get completely destroyed by Cancer, yet, I have seen so many people fight back and not give up. I have learned that cancer shows no sympathy because the disease itself is vicious and does not segregate. Cancer has affected many races of people the

“I made decisions that I regret and I took them as learning experiences…. I’m human, not perfect, like anybody else.” Words from the beautiful, outstanding woman Queen Latifah. Thought-out my walk in life, I have made gruesome and pleasant decisions, on relationships and the way I carry myself in life. Now that I am in college, I have been thinking about getting an edgy, rough cut. On the hand Michigan weather makes you wish there was long hair down your back. Let’s learn what relationships contributed to the decisions I basic my life off of.