My life before my grandfather’s passing was the best time of my life. My grandfather and I were very close, because he and my grandma and my other grandparents technically raised me, since my parents had to work a lot. So I always thought of him as someone I wanted to grow up to be. One day my grandpa was getting sick, and wasn’t getting better. I remember one time at my old daycare my mom came and picked me up and said that grandpa had to go to the hospital to get an oxygen tank. At first I didn’t know what was going on because I was around 5-6 at the time. So we went over to my grandparents house in Marshal and spent time with him. I thought to myself why he had to have that, I examined the oxygen tank curiously, not knowing why he needed that. Then came the day when he had to go into hospice care.

On that day it was almost unexpected but we knew would happen eventually. When he went into hospice care I had a slight feeling that something bad might happen, but I quickly got that thought out of my head because I believed he could get better with time. Then the night before his unexpected passing, my aunt wanted to know if I could stay the night with them and my cousins since they didn’t live that far away from the hospice center, and  gladly accepted their offer. The ride to their house was quiet but they were happy that I was spending time with them. Once we got back to their house my cousins and I did what any kid does, we played trying to not be depressed, and after that went to bed. The next morning though was one of the most heart wrenching moments of my entire life, my grandpa had past away over night. My aunt had received the call from my mom, and relayed the news to us while we were eating breakfast.

After we had gotten ready we left and went back to the hospice center. When we got there we were very heartbroken and emotionally crushed. Even though I hadn’t known him as long as my mom and grandma did, I still felt terribly saddened by his passing. Because when I was a kid “death” was never something I had thought about, because my childhood was full of life and happiness.

The day that my grandpa died was the day our family changed, and so did our lives.