My Life With My Grandmother

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.

When you think of losing a grandparent in your life, you think of them passing away. You dread the day you will get the call that they are sick. You then begin to cherish all the moments you have with them leading up to their passing. You have time to except their sickness, and come to terms with the outcome that is to come. My PopPop is not here anymore, but do not get confused, for he is alive. I did not have warning. I did not have time to cherish him. I did not have time to say goodbye. My PopPop was on no medication, which was almost uncanny for a 75-year-old. Trying to encompass everything he was boils down to a few things that may not seem like much to someone who didn’t know him. He went on a walk every night after dinner, and would whistle the same tune when he was happy. He played the same little ditty on the piano every time we were all in the living room. He was a simple man who could not harm a fly, and a good man. Unlike the grandchild warned when they are going to lose a grandparent, I did not have this notice. I did not have time to go on one last walk with him, and I did not have time to record him on the piano. I did not have time to replicate his whistling song, or to spend time with the man I knew. My PopPop was the heathiest man I knew, but then he got depression. First slowly, then all at once. The man I knew had slipped from my fingers without any chance to hold on tighter.

While, my mother has also been a significant individual in my life, my grandmother has always been my confidant, someone I could go to whenever I was confused or needed guidance, and she always had the answers. Whether it was putting alcohol on a scrapped knee or lending a shoulder to cry on, I could count on her to be there during my most precious moments. The tough love has also

Personally, I believe wisdom is defined as a quality that some people possess of having experience and knowledge in general things throughout life. These people found their chi (I guess you could say) in life and are comfortable in the state they are currently living. Before I started this interview assignment, I had hopes of learning more about the life of my grandma and the difference of living from the 1930s to 2017. From the very beginning, when I reading through the syllabus, I knew I was going to interview my grandma. My grandma is the relative who I am closest to, besides my dad. Yes, I would have interviewed my dad because he would be 70, but sadly he had passed away. I thought this would be perfect for me and my grandma because, though I hear so many stories all the time, I never get tired of listening. The interview was arranged at her house, over a cup of coffee and cookies. The questions I thought of pertained to my grandma’s life (i.e. how did you meet grandpa and how long did you wait until marriage; what influenced your life decisions and why…etc.). I developed these questions regarding my grandma’s life because I didn’t want to make it like an interview, so I arranged the questions to sort of tell a story.

Life is full endless possibilities but in order to make life a little easier is by giving up. Sacrifice is something important or value for the sake of other respect. The sacrifice I had made, was the death of my grandfather. My grandfather was the only person I look up to very closely because he understood me like no other. My grandfather lived in Puerto Rico and since I was six years old, we have done everything that he and I could have possibly think about such as, every night we would go to the beach, the park, the stores and enjoy the night outside in his yard. Our favorite place was just the background of his home because he had roosters and I would always help him feed them. Him and I just sat in the yard and talk for hours about our lives and we made many promises to each other. However, the only issue was that my grandfather lived in Puerto Rico and I lived in New York, so I only got to see him once a year. Sometimes I had to force my mother to let me go to Puerto Rico or for him to come to New York to spend the holidays together. My grandmother would get jealous sometimes because I use to always be with my grandfather, I always dependent on him for everything, but one day he was at the doctors and I didn’t know what was wrong. He tells me everything and I realized he wasn’t ready to tell me that he was dying because he knew I couldn’t handle it and he was right. When I found out he was suffering from lung cancer I started taking care of him and helping

Cancer doesn’t win. Cancer isn’t the victor, it’s the loser. Cancer’s purpose it to test our strengths, to see how far it can take us before we quit, its all a battle, and how it turns out in the end is completely by our view. People don’t lose to cancer, it losses to us. It’s all about how we fought it off. It should be about how we won it. For only four years in my life I have been able to speak to my grandma Judy, she died when I was only a child, so meeting her is only a few memories of many years ago. My Grandma was short, red curly hair, and a woman of many victories. I know that she was a true hero, victor, and a winner of many things, but most importantly, she was influential in life. She realized it wasn’t about winning it all, but overcoming her problems and adversities to reach her goals.

Education is the key to success and without it you will not have a future. That is embedded in my brain. As a teenager you listen to your parents nag on you all the time about school and just think it’s easier said than done. But for me I lived through paradigm, my mom went back to school while raising us and working two jobs. She graduated from ASU with a 4.0 GPA and was honored and on the news because of all she’s done and went through in her lifetime. I have a difficult enough time doing my homework and going to basketball training. My mother went to school full-time, had two jobs, cooked for us, cleaned, paid bills, went to our games and still managed to get a 4.0. She always tells us if I can do it you can. Nothing in life comes easy you have to work for it, then you will be a success, if it is just given to you then you will never recognize the value of it.

In my family school is very important to them because its a step of succeed in the future because going to school and learning prepares you

But very much so to my Grandmother as well. As I prepare to start the next chapter of my life, College, I am so thankful for my Grandmother for being a good example and motivation for me. Like her, I am not satisfied with “just enough” but instead to always strive to be the best that I can be. Like her, I work hard to be honest and fair. I volunteer for organizations like OCA Asian Pacific American Advocates and the Cleveland Asian Festival to help others and promote my heritage. Like my Grandmother, I have a deep commitment to family. In the years to come, I will work hard to excel. To be an example. To be a role model to others. Thank you Grandmother! My

She was always there for me and still is. I had one other living grandparent she didn't want to have anything to do with my family for reasons we could not understand. About two years ago she had a heart attack and wanted to see us, so my parents dropped everything they had going on and drove to Nevada to see her. We stayed in contact with her until we went to visit her for the last time. She had a stroke and wanted to see my dad before she died, so we cancelled what we had going on and drove to see her. The night we arrived in Reno to see my grandmother she died. I learned how my parents will do anything for family and that we have to be there for eachother no matter what. No matter how bad we mess up family will always be there for you in the end. And that is all that

So i spent the night at my grandma and grandpas and in the morning we all woke up in the morning we all got in the van and all the kids including me took nap in back and when we got there we had to put camper up and take boat to ramp to get it to the campsite

I remember it like it was yesterday, even though I was only three. We were all at home;

Every day she pushes me to go to school every morning so I can have a better education than she did. A better education is a brighter future. She’s always saying “I want you to experience all the things that I couldn’t.” She is such a great motivation. Every time I want to give up she helps me understand why giving up isn’t an option. Especially because this is my senior year. There are some people in this world that don’t have their mother or father and it’s really tough for them. I’m one who doesn’t have their father but shout out to my mom doing her job so well, I never needed him. She played her role well and also played his. Without her I don’t know where I’d be. I’m very appreciative. Thank God for giving me her. Well, giving her me. She is a

Just last winter, I went to my grandma’s house to visit them. I spent the night there too. When we opened her house door her dog barked. She had a white furred dog and she was a small dog too. About 2 hours after my parents, brother, and sister left I watched a movie and ate popcorn with my grandma. When I woke up I went to the kitchen to eat breakfast. We ate small white powdered donuts and chocolate milk. About an hour after we ate, my grandma asked me if I wanted to make the potato candy she makes every winter. I excitedly ran like a cheetah to the kitchen to help her. When I got there my grandma and I got out the ingredients. We carefully opened the powdered sugar and it smelled like I was in sugar land.The bag kind

My sense of independence was shattered when my grandmother departed from this world. I lost my grandmother and this experience shattered my perspective of life. Losing a loved one was like having a wisdom tooth pulled without any Novocain.