It’s amazing how a situation can change in just a matter of a week. How you can lose someone you love in a heartbeat. How you can regret not saying want you wanted to tell that person. How you could never see them again and how you wish you could have talked to them more or been with them more.

It was the weekend finally! It was the St. Mark tournament and everyone was excited. I had been waiting a long time for this and was ready. We were warming up for or first game and we were pumped and energized. This was it the day we were going to beat St.Mark. I could see my mom and sister over in the stands. A couple minutes later, I saw my mom quickly walking over to our bench and I was becoming very curious to why she was. She started to talk to my coach and then hustled over to me and in a frightened voice said to me, “ The doctors called and told us that grandpa Isn’t doing so well, I was stiff I wasn’t sure what to do I didn’t feel like playing anymore I just wanted to go see him.
After all my games we went home that Saturday evening exhausted but the next morning we got a call from the nurse she had told us that my grandpa was getting even worse and that we should come down and stay with him. I could see in my parent’s eyes that they were worried I knew we all were we had no idea what was going to happen so we all piled in the car and drove down to Weimar Hospital which was two hours away from our house. When we got there the nurse showed us to my grandpa’s room. We all sat down around his bed the doctor came in shortly and took my parents outside the room so he could talk to them. I could hear little fragments of the conversation. The one sentence that I heard clearly was the doctor asking about resuscitation. I froze I couldn’t move I kept repeating the word over and over in my head and I was afraid and I couldn’t breathe. My parents came back in and they told us what the doctor had said it was getting close to lunchtime so we all decided to go get a bite to eat.
When we came back my grandpa was resting so we let him and went to sit down to take our minds off of everything that had just happened the doctor came back again and asked to speak with my dad. “I’m sorry to tell you this sir, but we are moving your dad to the ICU and we don’t know how long he has left.” The doctor told my dad in a low voice so that my siblings and I couldn’t hear him. It was September the 9th 2007, and my grandpa had been in the hospital for about a week now. We could tell
that he was getting worse. It seemed like a terrible fairy tale to me and I couldn’t grasp the concept that we were in the hospital and that my grandpa was on his deathbed. I had never seen one of my grandparents dying before so I was very emotional and didn’t understand why God wanted me to see my grandpa like this I was very upset and I wish it would have been all a dream. My mom, my brother, my sister, and I were over in the chairs playing a game waiting to hear some good news. I looked up to see where my dad had gone to and I could see him whispering to the doctor but my dad slowly walked over to us he said in a calm and fearful voice, “We need to talk to grandpa.” I wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that by just seeing the tears flood his eyes I knew that this may be the very last time to ever talk to my grandpa. I was scared and I didn’t know what I was going to say or if I could say anything or if he was just going to die right there while I was talking to him.
My dad went first into the room he was in there for what felt like an eternity and he came out sobbing and mumbling. Then my mom went in she was in there for a little and came out with tears streaming down her face. She walked over to my siblings and I and comforted us. My brother was next he slowly walked through the door and closed it softly. He was in there for a very long and I thought he would never come back out. My sister was a little reluctant to go in but with the support of my mom she wasn’t in there for a very long and came out looking nervous. It was my turn now and I felt as if I could just burst into tears right there. I put on a brave face and walked in I stared at him and it felt as if my heart was going to brake into a million pieces. He looked so afraid and he was in excruciating pain. I could hear his slow steady heart beat and could see by how he was laying in the bed that he was suffering. He looked very still and lifeless I couldn’t help but to just stand there. I didn’t realize how late it was until I looked at the clock it was 10:45 p.m. I tip toed into the room I sat down into a chair beside his bed. I didn’t know what to say, but in a timid, weak voice I said,” hey grandpa.” We sat there in silence for a long time I couldn’t seem to do anything else but just stare at him I kept choking on my words my tears blurring up my vision. All I could get out then was,” I love you grandpa.” I said loud and clear so that he could hear me. I kept saying to myself God please let him not be in pain. I reached out slowly to grab his hand it was cold and stiff, I was shocked when I felt it. I stayed there for a couple minutes and then I got up and quickly walked out I ran back to my mom and gave her a huge hug burying my head in her shoulder.
The nurse asked if we wanted to spend the night there and of course we stayed because they had set up a bedroom for us. The next day we woke up and all went down to see him. It was about 10:30 a.m. my mom had made the suggestion that we should say a prayer asking God to be with grandpa and the doctors. When we got back we could see that the doctors were working with him so we agreed that we shouldn’t disturb them and that we should wait until they were done. It seemed to take forever but they finally did and by that time it was 11:40 a.m. The doctor came rushing out he started of by saying, ”I’m sorry I didn’t catch it, I didn’t realize that your grandpa was taking blood thinners. The medicine I had been giving him is slowly causes him to bleed to death.” My dad’s face just fell he was like his whole world was just falling apart my mom went to comfort him and gave him a hug he was beginning to tear up. My dad then had to make a huge
decision and it was to keep my grandpa on life support of take
him off of it.
Around 12:00 my dad came to us and told us that he was going to cut the life support. I was stunned I didn’t understand why my dad would do that but he thought that it was the best for grandpa, he wouldn’t be in pain and he would be up with Christ in heaven. I was terrified I didn’t want to see this happen but we all went in the room silent, you could hear him still breathing him, not wanting to give up the machine roaring we were all crying the doctors and nurses looking so series and still. I didn’t want for him to go like this I wanted it to be peacefully I remember standing at the side of his bed telling him how much I was going to miss him and how much I loved him and would never forget him. His heart beat steady and slow I moved back to the end of the bed with my siblings and my mom so that my dad could hold my grandpa’s hand. You could tell by the look in my grandpa’s eyes that we was scared I knew that he was trying not to give up but he needed to my dad and grandpa both bailing and then I saw the doctor move to the life support switch and turned it off you could hear his heartbeat just come to a stop. It was over no more pain and suffering and I looked over and saw my dad looking up.
It was September the 10th 2007, a couple days later we had the funeral and he was buried in Houston’s Veterans Cemetery. It’s amazing how God can take people away from you in just a heartbeat. Its crazy how people can be gone and how you took them for granted because they were alive and you could seem them whenever you wanted to. I always wish I had spent more time with my grandpa or even just called him more
but now he’s in a great place with joy and love and I know that
everyday he is watching over me and my family.