Love Like There 's No Tomorrow

One night as I searched for my mother, my dad told me she was not feeling like herself. My dad told me to let her rest that night and I could talk to her the following morning. As I started to wake up the next morning my father was sitting at the foot of my bed and informed me I’d be spending the day with my Aunt Michelle because my mother had a doctor’s appointment. I could not wrap my head around why I would not be attending this appointment but had attended all the others. Later that evening once again both my parents came into my room but this time without smiles. With a shaky voice my mom began to tell me she had been diagnosed with Preeclampsia and her illness was progressing quickly. Now with tears running down her face she continued

After several weeks of my Grandmother passing, I came to realize she wasn’t coming back. The feeling of shock had left and now I felt intense amount of emotional suffering. The continuous feeling of pain and unanswered questions lingered about in my mind. I began to wonder how it could have happened and what people could have done differently. At this time, my whole family was grieving over the loss as well.

In November of 2014 my aunt tragically took her own life. That day I got a tearful phone call from my dad; I could feel his heart breaking as the words came out of his mouth. I held back tears as I drove to his office to be with him, knowing that in this moment I had to be strong for my dad. Together, heavy-hearted, we went and broke the news to my grandparents. During a time of year when most people prepare to gather together with loved ones to celebrate the holidays, my family and I were unexpectedly thrown into a period of mourning. My grandmother asked again and again why Joanie did what she did. I was at a loss for words. I had no answers. I still don’t.

I remember it as if it happened yesterday. The strange sound of my mom's phone was loud and alarming. I decided to ignore it and go back to sleep. Soon after I went back to sleep, my mom came in my room. I sat up in my bed with my eyes half opened, and I remember the puzzled look on her face. It was frightening like if she had just been told something unexpected and upsetting. And at that exact moment, I knew exactly what she was going to say, and I froze in fear. She sat next to me and nervously mumbled ¨Your grandma passed away¨. I didn't know what to do and I didn't want to believe it. The exact same four words kept repeating over and over in my head and I felt like the whole world was spinning. Without even realizing, I then found myself bawling my eyes out. I had so many mixed emotions. I was heartbroken, I was angry and I was upset. My mom told me to get dressed since we were going to the hospital but I refused to go. I was upset and all I wanted to do was to be alone. My mom then left after having a talk with me about my grandma. I started to feel better and I was starting to accept that things happen for a reason, but it also started to feel like there was a huge hole in my

When I got my family was around our wooden table. My dad on his soft voice said “ I don’t think your grandpa will go through one more night, you need to call him” he cried. I felt like I couldn’t do it, felt so week and a huge hole in my stomach, something I’ve never felt before, I grabbed the phone and when I was about to call, the phone ringed, I passed the phone to my dad, It was my aunt sobbing and barely able to speak, then she said “ he passed away, I’m sorry honey” I couldn’t believe it I didn’t even had the chance to say

I asked my mom “what’s wrong,” she replied with a sorrowful “your Aunt Lisa is in trouble, we must leave now.” The worst part of all of this was my Aunt Lisa’s son was with us, Matthew. He did not know what to think or believe. No one knew the world would slowly start shattering beneath all of us that morning. We drove to her house, we saw ambulances and police cars driving by, that did not help our nerves at all. We finally arrived at her apartment, we never thought all of those emergency vehicles would be going there. My brother and I stay in the car since I was only eight and he was only eleven. My mom and cousin run into the apartment hoping to only find my Aunt had fallen and is unconscious, or she is passed out drunk, just let it be something that is not permanent. What they come to find is that my Aunt is laying on the floor, unconscious, but cold as ice. It was not from someone killing her, or us getting there too late. She had died twenty-four minutes before that phone

Last year on November, my sisters, their boyfriends, and I went to Las Angeles for a late graduation present. We went to Las Angeles so we can go to Universal Studios and Disneyland to have fun. on the first day we spent the whole day looking around Las Angeles taking a tour around. On the second and third day we went to Disneyland and Universal Studios, it was my first time going to DisneyLand and Universal Studios and i had a great time. When we were about to leave Las Angeles my mother called and told us my grandmother died. me and my sisters were crying cause we were sad when we heard the news and my mother cried also. My grandmother lives in Vietnam so we couldn’t visit the funeral, so i couldn’t go to the funeral and i stayed back in

At the age of twelve years old, I lost my mother due to liver disease. Came home from school just to see her take her last breathe. She was laying there with a family picture in her hands. I never saw someone turn blue as their eyes turned yellow. The warmth of her body was slowly leaving as she was turning cold. I laid next to her and asked her to get up or say something to me, she laid their so stiff and quiet. It felt so unreal. I didn’t know our last hug and kiss was going to be so cold. I didn’t know what to say or think, all I felt were tears coming down my face. My siblings and I missed a couple days of school due to the funeral arrangements and the mourning of our mother. A few weeks later, I came home from school with the devastating news that my father along with three of my siblings were deported back to Mexico. I was left with my fourteen year old sister, with no family in the United States that could have come to our rescue. I sat in my parent’s room and looked at our family pictures. All the family memories kept rushing through my head. I felt numb and empty wondering if I was still alive or was this the feeling you feel when you’re dead. There were only two questions in my head how will my sister and I survive? Will I make it to see the next day?

Then, my mom had just arrived from work, at Banner Gateway as a microbiologist, and a future Physician Assistant. Since she had just come home, she was extremely exhausted after working from 7:00 p.m to 6:00 a.m, so she went straight to sleep. After the most amazing breakfast ever, my dad, little sister and I left the house at 7:53 a.m, as I remember exactly. Everything was perfectly normal, until my dad got a call. We still hadn’t left our neighborhood when my aunt had ever so mysteriously called my dad screaming over the cell phone. After hearing this, I knew something really terrible happened and would effect my family forever. I wasn’t sure what happened, but I was willing to figure it all out. My aunt lived in the same neighborhood as my family, so we turned the car around and zoomed towards her house as fast as we could. As my father opened his door and hustled out of the car, I had

She offered to take us to Stanford Hospital and wait for my mom’s surgery to finish. When we arrived at the hospital the concierge told us her surgery would take two to four more hours. I kept praying while waiting for the surgery to finish. Hours later the Doctor came out with the news, he stated “Froda lost a massive amount of blood, she will need a lot of rest, but she is in a stable condition”. Hearing those words gave me a bit of relief, but I was still emotionally devastated. Days later she woke up. Her face was pale as a ghost and had tubes going around her body. I was in shock and times couldn’t take the pain. I kept asking: “Mom do you know who I am?”. She would nod her head slowly.When she spoke, every word that came out was mumbly. I nor can anyone understand her, but I was happy that she was

In 2009 a lot went on in my life. On April 9, 2009 I was at my grandma house sleep when I heard someone call my name it was my grandma. So I got up to see what she wanted and she said, “I’m having hot flashes go and get me a cold rag to put on my forehead.” So I did and when I came back I put it on her head. Then she begun to close her eyes slowly so I thought she was going to sleep. But when I tried to wake her she wouldn’t wake up. She always kept a book of emergency contacts beside her bed on the dresser. So I called my cousin Donnie and said, “I, I think granny dead.”He said, “WHAT!!” So when he got there he told me to get out the room so he can see. Then he came back a few minutes

We drove for what seemed hours to my six year old self. When we arrived in the parking lot of the hospital, which I can never remember the name of, he told us why we were there. Lauren threw a fit, screaming and crying like someone was hurting her. She shouted “I never wanted him”. I believe that is still to this day the biggest lie she has ever told. We walked up to the big glass hospital doors, and straight through them to the elevator. I waited and waited for what seemed forever until the big silver doors opened, and my dad showed us which way to go. We walked past room after room listening to the crying and sometimes laughter. Finally, we got to the right room and we walked in. There sat my mother on a hospital bed. She didn’t seem hurt or in pain, but they said it was happening fast. At one point my mother’s father (Poppy) took us down to the cafe, and all I remember is that hospitals have very good spaghetti. My Poppy got a phone call and all of the sudden we were on the move, going through the halls like there was a fire we were trying to escape from. When we got back to my mother’s hospital room, everyone looked so upset; their faces, eyes and cheeks were red and

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

It was May 17th, 2011, it was a normal school day when my brother and I were told that my mom called to say that she was picking us up early. I was anxious, wondering why we were going home early and breaking our usual routine. When my mom came to get us, the first thing that I noticed was that she didn’t greet us with her usual smile. I was 9 years old, very observant, but not able to sense what was to come. We got into the car, when I asked my mom where we were going hoping