Essay About Family: A Lesson in Saying Goodbye

A Lesson in Saying Goodbye

A guilty feeling surged through me as I snuck out of church early, but I could not wait any longer to show my friend, Jonathan, my new Chevrolet Cavalier. As I raced out of the parking lot, I heard ambulance sirens in the distance, and I felt a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach as if butterflies were fluttering around trying to get out. I paid the feeling no mind as I merged onto the interstate at Gray and headed toward Johnson City. Little did I know those sirens would change my life forever.

I made it to Big Lots, where Jonathan works, and I forced him to come outside and look at my car. Then we sat and talked for a while and I bragged about how I was going to my grandma’s house to eat a good home-cooked meal, while he would be forced to eat fast food again. When I left Big Lots, I still had a little time before church let out, so I drove back to Gray to the Dollar Store for some supplies for a Spanish class project I was doing that week. Finally I pulled into my grandparents’ driveway, and I noticed the door was closed. I thought this was unusual because I knew my grandpa was home, but I had forgotten a school fundraiser form for my aunts to look at, so I turned around and drove back home to Jonesborough. While driving home my friend Rachel and her mother were behind me, they followed me all the way to my house. I thought it was some kind of joke, but when we pulled into my driveway, Rachel yelled, “Get in the car! They had to take your grandma to the hospital.”

That was one of the worst rides of my life. Rachel and her mother told me my grandma had passed out at church. Rachel had tried to run and catch me before I left, but it was too late, I was already gone. A million thoughts raced through my mind such as was she hurt or would she have to stay in the hospital a while, but death never crossed my mind.