On Tuesday September 17, 2012 at 2:12 pm is the day that changed my life forever. It was a beautiful sunny day; one of the most important days of the year for Jewish people like me. It was Rosh Hashanah and I was at my neighbors house eating lunch. My grandmother, better known as Grammy had been sick for a few years now. On October 19, 2011 she had a stroke and what we all thought was the end of her life, but it was not. She fought to get better, went to physical therapy, doctors appointments,  and tried to live has normal of a life without mobility on the left side of your body. Then a year later on August 12, 2012 she got diagnosed with cancer.

Cancer, the not so big "C" word. The word that scares everyone. My mom got the call at 5:37 that her frail mother was being rushed to the hospital. After hours of testing, phone calls, and waiting she was diagnosed with Lymphatic Cancer. When my mom told me all I could do was cry, I ran to the beach and cried and cried and cried. As soon as I was able to pull myself together, I did research on this cancer. What I found was, it was one of the easiest cancers to beat. I saw this and was like, "Yes! She can do this! She can beat the odds." Little did I know she would not be able to.

As soon as I saw the what I saw I went home, still scared and upset, but told my mom what I had found. My mom being a nurse she already knew the odds. She knew about it not being that common of a cancer and how "easy" it was to cure. I told her and she just cried. My dad pulled me outside and told me that it was stage three. He said if they caught it earlier then it would be easier to treat, but because it was so far along it would be harder to do. I could not believe what I was hearing. My grandmother was going to die, but then I asked my dad about chemo and radiation. He said that they are going to try, but the doctor's are not sure how effective it would be because of her having the stroke almost a year before.

A month passed and my family was just finally getting used to the fact that my grandmother has cancer and none of us can do anything about it. It was Rosh Hashanah, a beautiful sunny day and then it just went dark. I was at my neighbors house eating lunch when my got the call that her mother had died. It had felt like the world had stopped spinning and the universe was just going to end. I had never seen my mother so upset in my entire life except the day her father had died, but that is another story.

I had to call my sisters and tell them what had just happened because they were both away at school and did not come home for the holidays. This was the second time I made this phone call to my eldest sister who was just devastated. The next few days were the hardest. My mom had to plan the funeral and get all the arrangements ready for September 20, just three days after she died.

September 20 finally came and I could not think of a more horrible day in my life. I watch hundreds of people pour into the temple to honor my grandmother and I just could not believe it. I watched as my parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends came to pay their respects to my family and I. I watched my mom give a eulogy about my grandmother and I just cried. I cried until I could not cry anymore. 

To this day I can never forget what had happened to my grandmother. I  remember like it was yesterday. The last words that I said to her were, “I love you Grammy! Never forget that.” That’s when her life ended, it stopped just before she said goodbye to me too. “I love y…”