Overcoming A Storm : Death, Emotions, And Relief

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

I went to my living room to ask my mom a question, to see she wasn’t there. I asked my brother “where’s mom?” and he replied with “shes at the hospital, grandpa got burnt.” I would never have expected “grandpa got burnt” to be as severe as it was. I remember my mom coming home around two in the morning. I got up and out of bed to ask some questions. She said “I don’t wanna talk about it right now. Pack some stuff up, we’re going to Waterloo tomorrow.” So I listened and packed up a bag.

On May 11th 2013, my grandma passed away due to pancreatic cancer. A little later that year on September 25th, my mom received a call from my aunt in Guam that my dad had passed away in his sleep. Then on May 14th 2014, my grandpa passed from complications of an allergic reaction to a medication. So within a year, I was left to deal with three immediate family deaths, one right after another. Losing such important figures in one’s life could leave someone depressed and unmotivated to move on with their own life and to rise above those challenges is difficult, yet possible. During this time of hardship, I grew discouraged and saddened, but over time I became motivated to set aside these struggles and make a change.

Five days had passed this time since anyone had heard from my mother. I remember praying to God to protect her from harm and for me to find her. The next day she showed up, but not in the way we had hoped. One morning as I was getting ready for school my sophomore year in high school, my phone rang to the voice of my stepfather. My stepfather had told me he heard a call come over the dispatch scanner at his work and my mother’s name was mentioned. The sheriff had informed my stepfather that my mother had been involved in an accident. My stepfather asked me to go to the emergency room and see what condition my mother was in because he lived a half hour away from the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital I found my mother cut out of her clothes, covered in her own urine, massive amounts of blood all over her body, and lying lifeless on life support on the table. At this point, no one knew whether my mother would be okay. My mother had bleeding on the brain as well as a tear in her shoulder, a shattered face, and a chest tube draining fluid from her lung which had collapsed. All I could do was pray! My mother’s life was in God’s hands now. Three days later she woke

A Journey in Grief: A Mothers Experience Following the Death of her Daughter by Alice W. Terry describes how the loss of someone so dear to you is unimaginable. When I was thirteen I lost my grandmother. She had been sick for a long time; I remember going to visit her in the hospital many times before she passed. The death of my grandmother was my first and only personal experience with the loss of a family member. Although this reality makes it hard for me to relate to this article at a personal level, I am truly grateful for the health and well being of those closest to me. Only being thirteen at this time, I was old enough to comprehend what had happened but I had not been old enough to truly experience the sorrow of losing someone. When I lost my grandmother, all I remember doing is crying. Although I was expressing emotion and grieving her loss, I do not remember having a conversation about what happened. How was I feeling? What is going through my head? Looking back now, it is frustrating to accept the fact that no one truly knew how to comfort me.

“Rabia wake up now; we have to go. She’s gone,” my mother said without another word. Within moments, I was standing in my best friend’s apartment at seven in the morning on Memorial Day. I stood there in the living room, unable to stop the tears from flowing as I watched the most terrifying moment of my life take place in front of my eyes. My muscles were tense; I clenched my jaw as my teeth began grinding uncontrollably. I tried so hard to mute the cries of others. Confusion had taken over my body so much so that I entered a state of numbness and could no longer feel any emotion. I have never had to use so much willpower to digest what was happening around me.

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.

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.

There are moments in everyone’s life that have the possibility to make or break them. A person can choose to succumb to the brutality of this long ride they call life or can climb out of the pit of despair and face your challenges head-on. I found myself at a crossroads and had this choice to make when my father passed away. This is my most life changing moment, but it isn’t even a moment, yet more like a snowball effect that has caused mass destruction throughout my entire life. Even though I have lost so much because of my father’s death, it is because of this that I have gained so much such as perseverance and responsibility.

Kneeling in front of the black-and-white photo of my uncle and hearing the crowd crying at the funeral, I painfully realized how unexpectedly misfortune could happen in life and how little people could do to change it for the first time. As the crowd all leaving after the funeral, the pain on my knee impeded me from standing up, and the pain in my heart stopped me from even trying again.

As I watched my house crumbled into a million pieces, my legs started to quiver to the point where I could no longer stand on my own two feet. Everything… everything I’d ever loved was inside: my diary, my family photos, my childhood memories. I couldn’t take the pain any more so I began to thrash around the frozen, forlorn floor like a fish on a hook. As my pupils rolled back, flashbacks rolled in. The picture of a child lying in bed while her parents read her a bedtime story replayed in my mind. Images of a primary school girl showing her parents the pictures she drew of them, as a family, wouldn’t fade away. All those memories…now gone. Forever.

on my shoulder and I turn to my mom. She explains to me the horrific event that took place April 28. Tears roll down my cheek as I turned away, watching the trees roll down. Imagining the pain she must be feeling right now as I watch church's pass by, McDonald's, Fiesta, Walgreens. It was a sunny day but everything seemed to turn to gray.

The silence was cut by a painful scream. I sat up alone on an unfamiliar bed, my warm cheeks evaporated the tears that rushed down my face. My two month vacation at Mexico in the summer of 2009 would change my childhood understanding of loss. I stayed at my grandparent 's two story house where I slept alone in one room and next to that room my mom and sibling 's slept. Through the window that connected the two rooms I watched my mom cry uncontrollably. She had her hand over her chest and yelled, "No puede ser!" My cousin, Vanessa, calmly stood in front of my devastated mother and told her about the horrible car accident her sister got into. There was an ache in my chest that I had never felt before; I tried my

November 28th, 2017 was a day that changed my life … I lost a special woman in my life, my grandma. Losing her to cancer was something I didn’t expect to happen. During the week of Thanksgiving break, my family and I were heading to Rochester, New York to visit my grandma. Before heading over there we knew that she had cancer, but I didn’t think it would be major. As we arrive in Rochester, New York, I was so anxious to finally see her since I haven’t seen her with in over a year. I couldn’t wait to go inside and finally get to talk to her and laugh with her. Dropping my bags in the kitchen and proceeded to the living room where my grandma was at, I came to a pause and took a deep breath. Seeing her just lying on the bed sleeping without knowing that I’m there looking sicker than I ever seen her. I decided to give her a kiss on her forehead and I immediately walked away into the kitchen and sat on the steps that lead to upstairs, I had never seen my grandma that sick before. To just walk in and witness it, it was a terrible feeling that I wish I had never felt. As I’m sitting on the steps, I begin to cry. Just thinking of all the times that she had gotten sick before it was never this most critical. Realizing my grandma was this sick, I had to make the best of it while I could. Throughout the day I couldn’t stop crying. I didn’t want to eat anything because I was so stressed about my grandma being so sick. Witnessing my grandma sleep the entire time while I was there and

As I blinked my eyes open, I remembered the screeching of the car. My heart racing at felt like a thousand’s, I finally remembered it had happened so quickly. I layed down until my mind comprehended what was happening. I heard an easy voice in the distance, ‘’Are you all right?’’It was the paramedics talking to little sisters. I tried to yell, but the medics walked up to me and patted me up, and told me to go get my sisters and follow her to the ambulance. I ran crying and breathing harshly and complaining that they wanted my mom. I felt like crying but I could not. I had to keep my sisters, who are still 4 years old calm. We went to the ambulance and waited. Then the police officer walked up to us and asked us some question. I asked him if, I could look for my dad but he handed me. My dad’s phone and my mom’s necklace. He told me that the paramedics took them to the hospital. The police officer thanked us and climbed out the ambulance. The medic closed the door and drove us to the hospital. As I entered the building, the nurse tapped my shoulder ‘’excuse me are those your parents?’’ She showed me the picture. ‘‘Yes but where are they?’’ she didn’t reply, she just bowed her head and held my hands, I took a deep breath and ask her again ‘’do know where are my parents have passed away’’ I was dumbfounded ‘’nooooo! , that’s not true, you’re lying to me why did they leave me?’’ I screamed. I stand taking it out on people that didn’t deserve it. I needed a lot of help. I didn’t