My Grandmother

September 27th 2009. I was on my dad’s weekend and my mom was in the hospital for a weeks. I would visit her every day and sometimes bring her flowers. But on september 27th I woke up and walked into my living room and my dad was sitting on the couch looking sad. I asked what was wrong and then a knock was heard on the door it was my step dad and half brother. My step dad had puffy eyes he was crying. He told me to sit down and my brother came out and sat next to me. My dad looked at us and he spoke up your mother had just passed this morning. I was shocked I was hurt I was scared.I didn’t know if i should cry or run away. I’ve learned that losing someone you love is tough.

One day, my parents got a call that my grandmother had fallen and wasn’t feeling very well. A couple of days later we noticed that she was not quite acting like her normal self. She was not as active as she used to be and her memory was starting to get a bit fuzzy. Our entire family started to worry so she was taken to the doctors. While there they discovered that she had a cancerous brain tumor. As a naïve young teenage girl, I never thought my grandma would ever get sick. Not once did I ever see her get a fever, the flu, or even something as small as a cold. It was a shock to not only myself but to anyone who ever knew her. Not once did I ever see my grandmother let the news of cancer bring her down.

Starting in 1990’s my mom is a foster home for newborns and infants. When parents can not take care of their children they go into loving foster homes. My mom will go to the hospital and pick up day old baby’s and take care of them till the parents can take care of them or adopted into willing homes where they will live a full and happy life. My birth mom has bipolar and depression and had a 3 grade level across the boards and my birth dad has a obsessive compulsive disorder and has a 4th grade level across the boards so when i was born it was so hard for them to take care of me. With my parents not knowing how to raise my child protective services came in and put me into foster care. My mom got a call and was told that a little girl needed

My grandma, Awi, was a smoker. She couldn’t stop smoking. I felt bad, but my sympathy for her grew tremendously when she was diagnosed with lung cancer. I was so depressed to see my family suffer, especially my father. My dad loved my grandma dearly that he would stop at nothing to make her feel comfortable, and he would even take the precaution to not allow her to walk by herself since she was so weak and tired. I didn’t understand why, but I was willing to help my grandma She always said, “I will be there to see you graduate.” I felt bad. When she died, I and my family suffered greatly. My dad always told me “you never know how much someone means to you until they're gone.” I’ve never seen my dad and uncle cry so much at the private service.

It was a tradition to go to Mexico every year or every other year. We would spend time with family and friends, but unknown to me it would be the last time a see my grandmother. We own a small store in Mexico and it was run by my grandmother. I knew she was sick but I didn’t know it was that bad. She looked great for the time we were there but 1 week or so after we left to come back to the U.S she died. It took the people around her to realize that she was gone. She was inside the house and has been dead for 3 days before discovering her.

Next thing I knew my Uncle Dough was there, and said “ she is doing very well according to the doctors she can go home a week from to day.” And that she did a week later we got the phone call that grandma is back at room.

So my grandma had brain cancer and I remember that i was with my other grandma at grandpa to get away from all of the stress. my mom called and she said that my great aunt Betty walked in to see her and my grandma took her very last breath. I started i was packing up to leave to go see her, it was a long pitiful ride, it took 45 minutes to get back to grand rapids, we were in kalamazoo. sometimes I think that i wanted to be there but it would be even harder for me. I know deep inside me that all things happen for a reason, she got taken out of all of her pain.

She was placed in comfort care at the hospital. The cancer had spread and her lungs were failing. A few days after the news my grandmother pulled the feeding tube out that they had placed in her nose and she was requesting to be unhooked from the ventilator. That’s when I knew I was going to loose my grandmother too and it killed me on the inside. So, one month and sixteen days, March 29, 2016, after my grandfather, my grandmother passed away. Watching her die was the most heart-wrenching, most painful thing I ever had to experience in my

I clearly remember the day I found out about my granddad's passing. I was at school. It was a normal, joyful day. My dad was planning on picking me up, but instead my friend's mom picked me up. He would not tell me why, but I did not think much of it. I remember the car ride to my house. My friend's mom would not tell me why she was driving me home; all she told me was, "Just know, Ryan, that we will be here for you no matter

Sometimes it is difficult for kids to become really close with their grandparents, but for me it was easy. Ever since I met my grandpa, I have had this connection with Gramps that has just continued to grow. Most people have nicknames for their grandparents, but for me it is plain and simple, just Gramps. To me, he isn’t just my grandpa, he is one of my friends because of the impact he has had on my life. Gramps has turned me into who I am today. He has brown eyes that remind me of sweet chocolate, they are always so easy to picture in my mind. I could stare into his eyes for days and it would never get old. However, he has thick old glasses that cover his rich brown eyes. To go along with his eyes, he is always wearing his polo shirts, with all different types of khaki pants. His favorite polo is his pink polo, and when he wears it he always says, “real men wear pink.” Every time he says that, I still laugh no matter how many times that he has said it to me. To go along with his outfit, he wears old brown shoes all the time unless he is doing athletics.

The person I have chosen to write about is my grandfather Juan “De Dios” Martinez. My grandfather has been a very influential part of my life. The fact that I am in this country, I owe to him and my grandmother and the struggles they endured coming here in the 60’s. His life has left an indelible impression on my life, and I feel an inescapable sense of gratitude and responsibility to him; to succeed and show him that his efforts for our family where not in vain.

That is something that has stuck with me ever since she said it. My great grandma’s name was Bessie T. Cupal. No one really knows what her middle name was. She was an amazing person, and lived an amazing life. I know this because even though I was only 11 when she died, she told me many stories of her life. She was born in the US, but went back to the Czech Republic with her family soon after.

My grandfather has gone for ten years. However, it was strange that he had often been in my dream until now. In my dream, his figure was so clear that I could touch him. He always held my hand and told me different fairy tales with a kind smile just like before. After several years of his death, I finally realized that this is how a person’s life connects to another one no matter life is over or not.

The last time I saw my grandfather in person was summer of 2015. He was visiting our family in the US. I remember taking him to Washington D.C and we walked the whole day to all the museums and monuments. I was exhausted at the end of the day and I was surprised that he was able to keep up at age 72. Even about a month before he left, talking to him on video chat did not give me any indication that he was going away anytime soon. What’s remarkable about death is that it can come so suddenly. Let alone for others, even he probably did not expect his death to come so suddenly. For him, death means that he will go somewhere else depending on what his beliefs are. But for me, death of my grandparent is very strange. Normally when I go back to China, I would stay at his place. He is always around to handle the chores around the house and making demands of others because of his teaching background and stubborn personality. But this time when I came back, it wasn’t the same. The subconscious expectation I had was completely shattered. I no longer hear that loud shouting noise in the background, or that intellectual-toned conversation with his students. I realized that I took for granted to what has been there for a long time, and when I lost it, I felt extremely depressed.

As a young man, I was raised by my Grandparents. It was from my Grandfather that I learned how to be a man. From him, I acquired the value of a great work ethic, the importance of truthfulness, and of living a life that not only you but, of one that your family could be proud. My Grandfather would always say something impressing that having a good name would carry me further than anything else in life. There is an essay in Ideas Across Time: Classic And Contemporary Readings For Composition, by Igor Webb, in which Socrates makes a statement that reminds me of the words that I would often hear from my Grandfather. Plato writes, in Socrate’s Defense (Apology), after being sentenced to death, Socrates tells the jury that “nothing can harm a