My Experience With My Grandmother

The day was February 11, 2007. I had just woken up. I went to my closet to get ready for the day, threw on some clothes and went into the kitchen. The day was dark, the atmosphere had an unusual dreariness to it. My mom was in the kitchen making breakfast for my brother, cousin and I. That is when the phone rang. Every day, every hour that phone rings. I never thought my mom ever gets off of it. My mom picks up the phone and it was like a movie, someone calls and receives horrible news and drops the phone from shock. That was this scenario. My mom could not get off the phone any quicker. She calls for everyone to hurry up and get in the car, dressed or in pajamas. I knew something was terribly wrong, did my father die from a plane crash, or did my grandma fall?

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.

My grandfather's dementia had gotten worse with age. He had developed a habit of walking out of the house randomly. They lived alone in their apartment in Pakistan. One day he walked out the same way and did not return for a long time. We were later informed that he had tripped on his way and broke his hip. After surgery my grandmother called me, I was living abroad at that time, and said, "I don't think he will recover, he is in a lot of pain" I assured her otherwise. She said, "I can't live without him. I don’t want him to die." The helplessness and grief in her voice was agonizing. She would often call and cry, it became tough overtime as I was abroad and not fully aware of his progress. I am her oldest grandchild, and she treats me like

My grandma was my superhero with her genial personality and her ability to give you her full, undivided attention in order to listen to whatever you had to say. It was always my dream to be able to share both my high school and college graduation with both my parents and grandma and being able to later pay them all back for all their sacrifices. Towards the beginning of my sixth-grade year my grandma became unexpectedly sick and as months passed her health slowly began to deteriorate until she fell into a vegetative comatose for the next four years. My grandma’s sudden illness came as an unexpected surprise which leads to my mom and her family having to take turns in order to care for my grandma throughout her extensive hospital visits and inhome medical care. Throughout those four years both my emotional and mental health took a hit as I tried my best to learn how to deal with her sudden illness and the fact that my mom was rarely home because she was either in the hospital or at my grandma’s house in order to help take care of

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

Religion has always been around for many years and will continue to live on. Since 2014, there are an estimated 4,200 different religions, all over the world each believing in different things Having their own set of rules and tradition that must be followed. Storytelling became a way to give people advice or telling people what would happen if they disobey their religious rules or tradition. In the story of a grandmother, it critiques religion for the way it can lead to snap judgments and a loss of freedom.

My grandma Linda was her only daughter. I spent weeks at Ma’s house in Holstein, Iowa. Christmas for the Grell’s was always hosted at Ma’s house. When I was young she would take me swimming at the communities pool, and ice cream afterwards. Ma’ was an expert cook, her favorite summer dish was fried chicken. She was nearly famous for that fried chicken. In September of 2012 Doctors discovered a tumor in Ma’s liver. Ma’s children paid for an assisted living home in Sioux City, Iowa. She pasted away March 21, 2013. Leading up to March the relationship between my mother and her parents decrepitated. My grandparents refused to come to my high school graduation.

When I was younger, I grew up with four grandparents who I could spend time with. As I started to grow older, my grandparents started to deteriorate. My grandmother developed Alzheimer’s, and more specifically dementia. I remember one day at my beach house when I was talking to her, she asked me who I was because she couldn’t remember. She didn’t remember her own grandson. She started to lose all her memory and she had difficulty hearing and speaking. It got to a point where there was no way of communicating with her, and we wondered if she even knew who her own family was. She went through this deterioration for upwards of 5 years, and I it got to a point where I forgot what she was like before she developed the mental disease. I would watch

Oh Junior, such a poor kid. Growing up with such an array of disabilities has definitely taken a toll on him. Seeing him constantly falling victim to teasing and bullying certainly makes me sad but sometimes I feel that he brings it upon himself; of course I am not allowed to say that though, being his grandmother I am required to be supportive of my grandson. I wish that he would somehow manage to at least find a few new friends. The only kid I ever see him around is that Rowdy boy. I know that they have been friends since birth but he is absolutely cruel and is constantly fighting others on the reservation - I do not think that he is a very good influence for Junior to be around. Rowdy had

When Shreya called my mom once my grandpa fell, she had to use a popular social media app called Whatsapp because, she couldn’t call my mom normally since the phone was from India. There was a chance that my mom could have not received that call because the app requires wi-fi. If my mom hadn’t been sitting right in front of our house with the door open, she might not have gotten the call! If I had let Shreya use my phone, my mom would have gotten the call even without wi-fi. A very important thing I learned was that not everybody takes everything as seriously as they should be. When I first told my younger cousin he looked up at me and asked me whether our grandpa died. I was very hurt when he said that. That was the moment that I realized not everyone takes things as seriously as they should. As I already said, my Aunt and Uncle were in India and so so that we wouldn’t worry them, my mom didn’t tell them what happened until they came back to America so that they wouldn't cut their travel short as it was already only a week long. Finally, I learned to think positive. My grandma was freaking out when we told her what happened and I had to tell her to think

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.

My Great Grandma was my best friend, I’m not sure how else to describe our relationship. She was someone I looked up to and hoped to be like when I grew up. She taught me a lot about life and how crazy it can be. Whenever I have tough days I replay her encouraging words in my head. Towards the end of February of 2013, my family received a call from my Great Grandpa to inform us that my Great Grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. We found this out only a few weeks before we were supposed to head down to Arizona to visit them for spring break. Our family didn’t know how severe it was going down there, we came to find out she was genuinely unhealthy. She didn’t want to leave her room, she didn’t want to complete simple tasks, she would tell

My family for a while now, knew of my grandma's illness, Alzheimer's. We visited her every year in LA before she passed away, thinking that it would happen soon. A few years passed, and we planned to visit her one last time. On our way to LA to visit her, we heard some tragic news from my aunt who took care of my grandma. She

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.

June 11, 2015. It was a regular summer day, or so I thought. Only five days until my fifteenth birthday and I was super excited. My mom had taken the morning off from work to take my grandmother to the doctors. She was going for her regular heart check-up appointment. As we always did, my mother and I drove that morning over to the nursing home in St. Matthews, South Carolina. My mother had recently entered my grandmother into the nursing home because my mom needed to start working more and could not fulfill the obligations of taking care of my grandmother like she normally would. When we got to the nursing home, we parked the car under the awning which was in the front of the nursing and covered a little walkway where people loaded their family members. I got out first and headed back to the room as my mom followed closely behind. When I walked into the room, I saw my sweet loving grandmother sitting there. As always, my beautiful grandmother, with her white hair, her green eyes, her frail but beautiful skin, and her smile glistened as she awaited her day out. My grandmother did not get out much so even going to the doctors was a good day out for her. We helped her into her wheelchair, a normal struggle for my mother and I, and we rolled her down the hallway to the car. We loaded her into the car, another struggle, and we headed off to Orangeburg which was where the doctors office was. While riding to the doctor's office my grandmother mentioned that her hands looked green