The girl considered herself blessed. She was happy and healthy. Her whole family was. The only bad part was she never had to deal with loss. Everyone that she was close to in her family was still alive and was in very good health. Her family had its flaws, but doesn’t every family? She didn’t speak to her dad’s side of the family; too much turmoil and no one was going to let go of the grudge any time soon. On her mom’s side, however, she was close with all of them. She talked with all her cousins all the time, and she was unbelievably close with her grandparents. She loved going down to visit them and always wanted to spend more time there. Her grandpa always had a new way to make her laugh. He was always goofing around and knew exactly what to say to make her feel better when she had a bad day. He was the sun on a cloudy day. On July 15th, 2014 she thought she had lost her ray of sunshine. She only saw clouds.

That day she had been at the beach. Her mom didn’t hear her phone ring. When they got back to the beach house they listened to the voicemail left by her grandmother. It wasn’t panicked exactly—it was almost too calm. It simply said, “I don’t want to worry you but your brother took your father to the hospital. Call me back.”
When her mom called back they found out he was in ICU with pneumonia and several illnesses. When they got back from the beach they spent every day at the hospital waiting for something to change. He was usually asleep. The doctors kept him that way. Her grandmother hardly left the room he was in. The rest of the family sat in the waiting room for hours on end. It was hard for everyone to be there. No one knew what was going to happen or what the future had in store.

She believed she was blessed. Something made her believe that God was watching over her family and that everything was going to be okay. Everything had to be okay. She had to think positively.

***
It had been six months since her family had received that call. During that time, her grandfather was transferred to three different hospitals before he started showing improvement. While he was moving around to different hospitals, her great aunt MaryAnn was brought into the hospital because of a heart attack. She improved very quickly, but it was still taking time for her grandfather. A few weeks before Thanksgiving, he was transferred to a nursing home.

***
Since his condition kept improving, the nursing home let him come home for Thanksgiving. At dinner when they all sat around the table the grandfather requested the family say grace, for they had so much to be thankful for. The sun shone brightly through the window brightening the room. He led the prayer saying, “Dear Lord, thank you for blessing our family. Thank you for providing us with your love and care, because without it I would not be here today and neither would MaryAnn.” At this point tears streamed down his face and everyone else had their head in their hands. “Thank you for giving us another chance at life. Thank you for keeping our family filled with hope and letting us all be home for the holidays.”

***
Those six months were some of the worst she had ever experienced. She almost lost two family members. Being in school wasn’t helpful, especially with all the useless drama that comes with high school. She almost lost one of the greatest people in her life. She learned to take life as it came and never take anything, especially family, for granted. She started talking to her relatives on her dad’s side as well and tried to change the way they acted towards each other. She tried to look at everything in a new light and give people a chance.

Life has its moments. Every second changes the course of the future. No matter how small the moments may seem, they are life changing and earth shattering in their own way. The girl found out who was really going to be there for her in the end; her family. And she accepted it with open arms.