My Grandpam My Grandma

By my mom and two of her sisters, my grandfather is called dad, but my Aunt Marcia addresses him as Jack Bronder. My maternal grandfather passed away before I was born, but that is not to say his life does not hold a standing presence in my family today, especially for my Aunt Marcia. The man that I imagine as my grandfather is created only by stories passed down to me, but the story that stands out to me the most is the one told by my Aunt Marcia.

The week when I was in Cherokee, North Carolina, my grandfather was hospitalized having a heart attack. I was shocked when my mother called my brother and I coming on the way back home that he had passed away. Then a week after my grandmother passed away. My grandmother, who has been sick for about four or five years, had lung cancer and had problems with her kidney’s. She always had a smile on her face no matter if she was in pain.

This leads to where I started back at my house when my dad told my sister and I that my grandfather was diagnosed with Leukemia. That was one of the hardest things for me to hear considering that my grandfather was a big part of my life. My dad said that he was going to be in hospice care without chemotherapy because he said: “That he had lived his life.” Two weeks after being put into hospice care my grandfather passed away with all of his family by his side.

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

Cancer, you have heard of it, that horrible disease has taken away two of my family members. one of them died long before I was born. Today you will read about the one of my loved ones that died most recently in my history, my grandmother.

Through all of the challenging things that took place while my father was fighting cancer, I learned many valuable lessons. My parents decided that my father would undergo chemotherapy and radiation at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Newnan, Georgia. Normally, they would be gone for about two weeks at a time, but there were a couple occasions that my parents were forced to stay there for months due to major surgeries. Home alone in Florida, my brother and I had very different schedules. So, I was alone most of the time. I was only a sophomore in high school, and I found myself having to do pretty much everything on my own. Even though it was onerous, this time in my life is very meaningful to me. It taught me that I will not always have someone to rely on. Even if it was a little earlier than normal, I am thankful that I was forced to become as independent as I am today. I value this chapter in my life, because I believe that being strong and independent is very critical to being able to survive in the world we live in

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

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.

Five years ago in 2012 my Aunt Mary died from cancer. Cancer had consumed her whole body. It started in her liver and spread to different organs and even reached her brain. When she found out she had cancer she was told she only had a few months to live. I had just seen her on a trip we had before we found out she had cancer and that was the last time I saw her.

When I was a LET 1, my grandmother was struggling with breast cancer. She needed a lot of help and support from me and the rest of my family. She

After many chemotherapy sessions, it became clear that the chemo was truly killing her! Of course, when you are in a situation where your life is involved you begin to do any an everything that comes to mind to help the big problem. With that being said, granny flew to Houston Texas to the cancer center to begin a new type of chemo. Once she arrived in Houston she decided she no longer wanted to go through with chemo, she told us she believed that we needed to put it in the Lords hands and let him handle

she said “my aunt…she was the one that took care of me…my uncle and my husband.” Ramona recalls her mother spent extensive hours away from home, working on behalf of the family.

My dad was diagnosed with cancer about 5 years ago. I was in middle school so I knew enough to understand that it was a very serious and scary thing which not all people can defeat. I had a very frightening realization that he could die and I might only have a limited time left with him. When he started to receive the chemotherapy treatments I knew that I had to step up and help out. This taught me that I had to get things done and I couldn’t procrastinate. He ended up defeating the cancer and coming home soon after, I’ll always remember how this experience taught me to stay strong and

Three weeks prior to the call, my grandma had just been diagnosed with stage 3 throat cancer on top of her already hard diagnosis of MS, otherwise known as multiple sclerosis. She was on so many pills for her MS that barely even helped het that it had taken a bit of convincing to even get her to agree to fight the cancer. She told everyone in the family that she was tired and it didn't help matters that she refused to

My grandma was a mother of three. She had my Aunt heather, Aunt Angie, and my mother. She raised my mother and Heather while going to college, which is a fight on its own, but to make it more difficult, she had hodgkins and had spent over an entire year fighting it in Iowa’s childrens hospital and held victory her senior year.. The chances of surviving hodgkins in the 60’s was around 75% and wasn’t the end for my Grandma, she lived to fight another day. Moving on in her life,She spent most of her time studying, she graduated high school on the top of her class, then going to college of hamilton for business. During that time, she had my mom and my Aunt Heather on the way.