There are many important days to me that signify what I lost was essential to my life. Death takes away what is important to a lot of people. Death is the end of the life of a person or organism.

My grandfather was a influential person in my life. He took control of his life in the best way he could. He was a pilot in everyone’s life. I was pleased that my grandfather didn’t lose his life at 9/11. It was a miracle that he lived from such a tragedy. However, a couple years later we got the devastating news that he had been diagnosed with cancer. I never expected this to happen. 

Death is something you never see coming. But when you face a challenge of a deadly disease, death can happen at any point. The death of my grandfather was probably one of the most difficult challenges that I had to overcome.  The fact that he didn’t die a natural calm death can be on your mind for a long time. He had to go through a time of suffering for about years.  Seeing someone that you love suffer can take a toll on you. May 22, 2016, was the most shocking and astonishing memory that still sticks to me today.  My dad took this death of his father very hard, just like me. For the upcoming days, there was like a dark cloud of sadness over my whole family.  This cloud stressed out my family. It was hard looking for flights to go away for a funeral that was happening in the next 2 weeks. Most flights were sold out or there weren’t enough seats for the family. My father went down a week early to help make preparations for the funeral.

My uncle on my mother’s side picked me up from school on a bright sunny day. When  I exited the school he called me and told me he was here. It was so unexpected that he picked me up from school cause it was so nice. When I got in the car he told me “ I’m taking you to an ice cream shop that’s not far from you.” I was happy to get the death of my grandpa off my mind. I was also happy because I love ice cream. AFTER I GOT MY BIRTHDAY CAKE ICE CREAM, WE WERE ON OUR WAY BACK TO MY HOUSE. HE WAS ASKING ME QUESTIONS LIKE WAS I OKAY AND HOW WAS I FELLING. HE THEN SAID, “ IT WASN’T LIKE YOU GUYS WERE CLOSE ANYWAY IT SHOULDN’T AFFECT YOU THAT MUCH.” ON THE INSIDE IT WAS LIKE MY WHOLE BODY JUST SHUT DOWN. I didn’t know how to feel. Luckily we were right around the corner of my block. When I reached home I just walked inside with no emotion on my face. I went directly to my freezer to put my ice cream inside there. I slowly went back to my front door to take my shoes off. It was like my whole day was now going in slow motion. The time was going by very slowly. Those exact words “ it wasn’t like you guys were that close anyway it shouldn't affect you that much”, was replaying in my head all day long. It was a hard decision if to tell my mother….. I didn’t tell her. I didn’t want to put a strain on her relationship with her brothers.   

I was having breaks downs for the rest of the day and could not focus to eat or do anything productive. In school, my work was affected very much. I was having mental breakdowns in the middle of the class. Many teachers were concerned about me. My English teacher in the 9th grade was able to connect with me about the pain I was going through. He told me he felt the same way I was feeling but to only take it one day at a time.

The flight on the way to Grenada was very nerve racking. My mother lost the bag we needed for the funeral. My outfit and many other important things that I needed was inside that bag. A panic came to myself where I couldn't function. Tears started to fill my eyes, as I wondered how could this happen. When we found the bag we had to go back through security which was stressful.

After arriving at my destination a family friend of ours picked us up from the airport. We headed to my grandpa house, where I then realized that most of the passengers on the plane were coming for my grandfather’s funeral. My father's stepmother introduced us to the people that were already in the house.  The looks on their faces shocked. It was like they couldn’t believe that he had more than 2 kids. Most people believe that my grandfather had only 2 kids with his wife. To me, that was depressing to me. It was like they didn’t want to accept the fact that he had 5 kids. His 5 kids include my dad who is first, my aunt who is second, my other uncle who I have never seen before, my uncle, and my other uncle. It was a hard time being in the house, all the memories started to flood back to my mind. After spending the whole day there I went back the place we were residing at which was my mother's house.

After a day went by the funeral had arrived. That day it was raining non-stop. We were residing in the countryside so that meant a lot of mud. My father was cooking for the funeral, while I was trying to keep my nerves down. The funeral was at 2 pm. Little did I know that was was a lot of things going wrong at the moment. When my dad’s family friend arrived to pick us up I was holding the wreath that was supposed to go on the casket. While we were going down to the church which wasn’t far from the house, there was nobody there  FROM THE FAMILY to collect my grandfather’s body. My grandfather’s close friend was luckily there to collect the body.

When we arrived at the church, my heart started to race. When I got out the car I started to cry. It was like I couldn’t believe that today was the day that I said my final goodbyes. I had to hang on to my mother’s arm to be able to walk up the church. When I arrived at the church I walked up to the front before I could reach the casket I started to cry full tears.

I went to greet my aunt who was standing on the side. She always felt that my grandfather treated her as a stepchild. She had no emotions on her face; she just had a blank stare. I then realized that both of her parents had died less than a couple months apart. I could feel the pain that she was going through. It was like how many tragedies can one person encounter. I felt the pain she was feeling, experiencing many of my family members dying only a couple months after each other. My aunts eyes was just black. She stared off into space, when I was trying to look into her eyes I didn’t see no emotion at all. She was standing in the corner looking very out of place. When waiting for my dad’s stepmom and my uncle to arrive, a man walked up to the front and said” I'm sorry for the delay but I just got  the news that Robbie and Derreck’s car has broke down.”After hearing the news nobody knows what to do. Just randomly a man walking down the aisle just faints. Every lady starts to scream like crazy. My dad goes to run  to the shop that is across the street to but some water for the man that fainted. I had a very stale face trying to figure out who was it possible that the man was capable of fainting. All the doors was open and the fans was on. After they had arrived the funeral began. Throughout the service all you heard was sniffles and faint sounds of crying.

When the funeral was over I changed my shoes into sneakers. While riding in the car to the gravesite where my grandfather wanted to be buried. Since it was raining all day long before, and the day of. With very small narrow roads it was hard for cars to be able to pass through. When I got out of the car, I took the wreath from the hearse and carried it up to the gravesite. It was a difficult travel up the hill. There was a lot of mud, which made it slippery for me to get grip. To get a grip to be able to get up  the slanted hill I had to dig my feet into the mud. While doing this I got a lot of mud on my shoes and and feet was getting wet from the moisture on the ground. When I finally got up to the site, I saw multiple other graves that was family members of mine. My grandfather wanted to be buried next to his mother. I heard she was able to live up to 132 years old. While waiting for other to come up the slippery slope, there was singing and instruments in the background. When my grandfather's wife was able to come up the slippery slope,they got her a chair to sit down. There was six people including my father and uncle’s trying to bring up my grandfather’s casket.

Now after almost a year and a half, his death is still affecting me now. My grandfather took control of my life. He was the pilot for my school life. Everyday the phone went *ringggg ringggg* He always made sure to tell me to do good. When his death hit me it was like life was over. My last and only grandfather gone. Now every award and piece of work I do for him.