Birds sang sweetly as the bracing summer breeze ran through the sunlit tree branches and water splished and splashed as it rushed over the sand and rocks in the stream. It was July 10th, 2010. Summer was in full swing and the sun hung in the clear blue sky like a huge yellow balloon, so big it might burst at any moment. My mom cursed as she attempted to put up the tent and my brother and I ran and jumped in excitement that we were camping out at Grandma’s. “Grandma and Aunt Jean are back from the hospital” my brother blurted. Soon, I saw my grandma come sauntering down towards our “campsite”. She was smiling even though her body was battling a war between cancer and chemo. My aunt walked down as well and immediately started talking to my mom.

“Mom says she’s feeling pretty good today.” I could tell. She seemed better than other days when she had those chemicals put into her body. 
     

After my mom wrestled with the tent some more and we had our campsite all set up for the night, we headed up to the house to start making dinner. “We should eat outside since it’s so nice out” I suggested. Everyone agreed. My mom and aunt cooked up some burgers and ribs on the grill as the sky turned from blue to orange and from orange to a twilight abyss of stars. We all ate our barbecue sauce slathered food, including my grandma which was strange since she hadn’t really had an appetite for a while due to her feeling sick. Hell, she even a glass of scotch and a glass of wine. We started to think that maybe she was starting to get better, but of course life likes to torture you by getting your hopes up right before it lets them down again. 
   

 “Who’s ready for some s’mores?!” my mom asked and of course my brother and I drowned everyone else’s voices out in a sea of “Me, me, me’s” and “I am , I am’s”. We headed back down to the campsite, this time with marshmallows, graham crackers, and Hershey’s in hand. As we all sat around the campfire stuffing our faces with “marshmallowy goodness”, we threw our heads back and looked up at the twinkling stars.
     

It wasn’t long before someone yelled, “Wow, a shooting star!” Then two minutes later, another one soared through the sky and then another and another. We figured there must’ve been a meteor shower considering that they went on all night. And as the stars shot through the sky that night, we talked, we laughed, and we were happy. After a night of star-lit laughs, we walked my grandma back up to the house and said our goodnights before we headed back down to sleep in our tent. And a good night it was. 
   

 When I had woken up, the shooting stars had turned into flashing lights and sirens. My grandma’s cancer hadn’t gotten any better. Even though it went downhill from there, I’ll still never forget the last good day I had with my grandma. And even though she’s no longer with me, when I look up at the stars at night, I know she’s out there somewhere looking out at the exact same ones.