Death a familiar friend, who seemed to always show up when I least expect it. Somehow when he appeared and blindsided me, I should have known. Things never can stay that good for long. My grandmother, taken by death to once again be reunited with her soul mate after years of morning. With this came the harsh effects of the diagnosis, the hospital visits at all hours, medication, death, and home. The joys of having a loving, caring, and sweet grandmother, all stolen from me by cancer. The day of her diagnosis and the doctors giving her a time expectancy. Sitting in the room, Dr. Vargas mumbled, “Lucila Toro, I’m sorry to inform you have stage two pancreatic cancer.” As a child, I was trying to grasp this information of how all my beliefs in God could fail me, death I had hoped my …show more content…
grandmother would make it to my high school graduation and prayed she would make it to my wedding day. Our lives completely shifted in an instant. We started going to the hospital at all hours mainly at night. I had to wake up at all hours of the night to check up on herm along with my mother and sister, leaving us exhausted by the morning. No one really understood how the painstaking work of round the clock care she needed; judgement came left and right about how lazy we were when family came around. It was a rough couple of years learning time management with her schedule. Along with the stages of cancer came the medication to buy more time. Radiation and chemotherapy (chemo) worked for a while, she lived three further years than her life expectancy. Before Dr. Vargas said with pain, “ Her cancer is irreversible, the medication will only buy you time.” Of course we ignored it and cherished every waking moment with her. After a while, her doctors formed together to gather some sort of a solution to help slow down the process, but all of them would ruin her chance of mobility in her final months. The decision became clear that taking her off of the chemo and radiation would be best. As her final months approached, she became bound to an oxygen tank, then being tied to her bed, and finally complete immobilization. My grandmother faintly told our immediate family, “ Please no fighting over my belongings, just love throughout this process. I love all of you and you need to stay united as one after I pass.” Although her time was near she always seemed to comfort us in the most unexpected way. She needed round the clock care, my mother would stay home most days to assist. We had little help beyond what my mother, sister, and I could offer. Death, an immediate friend, who soon visited to escort her to the side of my recently departed grandfather.
Her immobilization started rapidly declining, deteriorating her health, we checked her into the hospital where she got continuous round the clock care. As family came to say their final goodbyes before death came to take her, she held on for as long as possible till everyone left and it was just immediate family. Doctor whispered, “Kikki, you don’t look to good. Why don’t you go home to rest.” Later received a call already knowing that the cancer defeated her and my life would never feel and be the same, at almost 3am she passed. I entered the room and could not bear the fact that my greatest role model is no longer with me, sitting for hours crying sent home again. The ride home had been the most excruciating car ride of my life. Grasping this all new information, coping with grief and guilt had been extremely grueling. As my stepfather brought my sister and I home, nothing was to be said, no words were leaving my mouth.Our different home, we all limped our ways to our beds, and cried ourselves to sleep with nothing but silence remaining. Death had surprised me once
again. My role model passing left me with little hope of anything good happening to me. Without her with me for a while I had little to no hope of me being happy, but through all the grief I found happiness. I learned to channel all my anger at the world through fitness and keeping my mind busy. I have developed a new mindset, to just enjoy everyone today and never take anything for granted. Even today it pains me to say her name without my voice cracking or me stuttering.
Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of [my mother’s] death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger.
It was a true cancer horror story but she had stayed strong through everything and had a beautiful baby boy. After she gave birth, we went to see her and give her the check. We traveled to downtown Wilmington and visited with her new born baby, Gabe, and her husband. As we prepared to leave, we handed her the check from all of our fundraising for her. She took one look at the check in hand and bursted into tears.To her, the $1,000 check we handed her was so much more than a significant amount of money. It was a slight weight lifted off her shoulders, an emphasis on the fact that she was not in this alone, before nor
This is crazy. Why am I afraid? I’m acting as if this is my first funeral. Funerals have become a given, especially with a life like mine, the deaths of my father, my uncle and not my biological mother, you would think I could be somewhat used to them by now. Now I know what you’re thinking, death is all a part of life. But the amount of death that I’ve experienced in my life would make anyone cower away from the thought. This funeral is nothing compared to those unhappy events.
One fateful day at the end of June in 1998 when I was spending some time at home; my mother came to me with the bad news: my parent's best friend, Tommy, had been diagnosed with brain cancer. He had been sick for some time and we all had anxiously been awaiting a prognosis. But none of us were ready for the bumpy roads that lay ahead: testing, surgery, chemotherapy, nausea, headaches, and fatigue. Even loud music would induce vomiting. He just felt all around lousy.
It was a chilly morning in August and my phone kept buzzing in my pocket with news I wish I could change. I was sitting in the parking lot with one of my friends, talking, before we had to go to work. I grabbed my phone to figure out why it was going crazy. It was my mother: “Terrie is not doing very well; I wanted you to know. I am sorry; She’s nearing the end.” I broke down into tears while my friend witnessed it.
I can’t begin to express how hard it is for me to stand here before you and give my last respects to my loving mother - name here. From the biography that was handed out you can recall that during the her early years in the united states she studied and worked in New York where she met and married my dad, the love of her life. They spent the rest of their days loyal and in love with one another. Unfortunately, one day my father passed away with cancer at a young age. My dad was the one who suffered the most, but my mom suffered right along with him. She felt powerless, and for my mom- powerlessness turned in to guilt and grief, a painful distress she lived with on a daily basis for the next six years. When he died part of her died! Life for her was never the same again. I was not able to completely understand her loss- until now…
At the age of sixteen I experienced the horrible feeling of losing a loved one. On October 5, 2015 my grandma decided she wanted to leave Houston, Texas and move with us to Brownsville, Texas. During the month she was with me, we would do everything together. In the mornings I would wake up and make her coffee and I would be there with her
She left her house with a radiant smile and that same smile continued as I watched her open the door to the car with my father firmly entrenched in the driver's seat. They were on their way to buy a tire for her car which so happened to be three miles from our home. Time crawled along at snails pace and eventually my brothers and myself wondered where my father and godmother were. Within an instant my mother screamed for me and I ran to her as if my life depended on it. Instead my life was not in the balance it was my godmother who had lost hers. Instantly shattered and numb I was afraid to ask the next question but my mother eased my ...
My father passed away in 1991, two weeks before Christmas. I was 25 at the time but until then I had not grown up. I was still an ignorant youth that only cared about finding the next party. My role model was now gone, forcing me to reevaluate the direction my life was heading. I needed to reexamine some of the lessons he taught me through the years.
She began to suffer from hair and weight loss as well as the color change of her skin. My mind began to intersect with thoughts of her dying from cancer. I decided negativity would no longer control my thoughts; I had a grandmother who needed me to be strong and think positive about her condition, regardless of the situation and her physical changes. During the time of my grandmother chemotherapy treatments, I would miss school to attend her appointments. As a sophomore in high school, I could only miss a small amount of days before any negative effects displayed toward my grades. Therefore, I would miss school every Tuesday and Thursday for the next four months of my first semester of tenth grade. I didn’t mind because my grandmother meant the world to me and I would have done it a thousand times, if I was given the
I still remember that day mom. The day that you died. It was August 29, 2010, around 10 PM. The sky was plastered with clouds, it was pouring and the sky was like a night club. Flashing lights everywhere and the sound of thunder resonated throughout the surrounding area. During this time, my mom and I were on our way back from the police station after I shoplifted at a nearby convenience store. Luckily they let me off with a warning since my mom had my back and since I was still a juvenile. Just because they let me off with a warning, didn't mean that I was scot-free from my mom's scolding. From the police station all the way to the car, all I could hear was my mom's constant nagging about how I shouldn't shoplift and how I won't be let off the hook so easily when I'm 18 or older.
Anne (my mother) died at 2:30 am on Monday, July 31, 2017. She would have turned 98 on 9/11/17.
My Granny Jo is tall and frail with an amazing gentle personality she could win anyone over and you cannot stay mad at her for any longer than two minutes as her heart is a pot of gold. My Granny Jo has a smile that would light up the world. It was difficult so see my Granny so ill lying in a hospital bed without her little pink cheeks with her blusher missing although my Granny still looked like princess. There was a whole lot more heartbreaking news that struck me and my Family, when my Granny had surgery they removed one of her lungs during that had hoped that they had caught it all sadly this was a false prediction. Life at this time was so cruel cancer had spread so fast into my Granny’s other lung.
It was June 6, 2011. I remember taking my mother to the County Hospital’s emergency room. She seemed extremely exhausted; her eyes were half-closed and yellow, and she placed her elbow on the armchair, resting her head on her palm. I remember it was crowded and the wait was long, so she wanted to leave. I was the only one there with her, but I did not allow her to convince me to take her home. I told her in Spanish, “Mom, let’s wait so that we can get this over with and know what’s going on with you. You’ll see everything is okay, and we’ll go home later on.” I wish then and now that would have been the case. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with colon cancer that had spread to many parts of her body including her lungs and kidneys. The doctor said to me not considering that I was a minor and my mother’s daughter, “Her disease is very advanced and we don’t think she will live longer than a year.” With this devastating news, I did not know what to do. I thought to myself that perhaps I should cry, or try to forget and take care of her as best I could and make her laugh to ease her pain.
My heart was simply ripped apart. I could not believe it at first, but I knew I had to. After all these wonderful years and enthralling moments, I finally have to face God's greatest challenge. My mind wasn't as messy as before anymore and I couldn't even think of what to think. It seemed as if I had nothing to worry about, nothing to do, nothing to say. I was trapped inside this room waiting for the Grim Reaper to reap my innocent soul.