Iris Soto
English 59
Professor Ortiz
02/21/13
???????
Waking up from a nap to hear your phone ring, I answer it, it was my grandmother her voice was shaky and she seemed like she was sobbing, I had asked her what was wrong she simply replied...Your grandfather pasted away, my heart sank, mixed emotions, so many thought were running through my mind. I wasn’t sure what to think or feel. I knew one thing, that my mentor the one man that I looked up to as a father was gone. Although my grandfather isn’t here today, I will never forget the life lessons he taught me or the major impact he’s had in my life.
As a child my father was never in the picture, my mom was 18 and my dad was 16 when I was born. He wasn’t ready take on the role of a father just yet, he was still a kid himself.my father was too busy living the life of a teenager.so my grandfather stepped up to the plate, and decided to take the role of my father since my dad couldn’t. He was the best father figure I could have asked for. I would visit him every weekend, he would take me anywhere I wanted to go he spoiled me and showed me so much love. Every summer he would fill up a barrel with water, it would be our homemade swimming pool, my grandfather and I would spend hours playing and just spending time with each other, we would sit in front of the television for hours watching his favorite shows. It was something I looked forward to. He used to call me his “calabaze” which in English it translates to pumpkin, I was his little pumpkin and still am. Till this day I am so grateful that he choose to be the father figure in my life.
I never knew that my grandfather was sick, since I was about 15 when this on was going, my family wanted to tell me what was going on because they knew how close we were and that it was just going to get me really worried, I wish they would’ve told me because it would have prepared me and it would not have been such a surprise to me. I was noticing that he was kind of distancing himself from me, he was too busy to spend time with me or he just was never feeling good. I never thought anything of it at the time. Until one day I find out that he was taken to the hospital, I started getting worried because I didn’t know what was wrong with him. He was in there for a couple weeks I was hoping it was not something serious, in my mind I was trying to tell myself that everything was okay and that it was just a bad cold. I kept asking family members to tell me what was wrong with him but nobody would speak up. I visited him every other week I didn’t want him to think that I was not there for him. The last week that I had gone to visited him I was the worst visit, I went into his room looked at him, he did not seem himself he was pale and just no the, and that I’m used to seeing. I go up to him and said good morning, he looks up at me with this blank look on his face, he finally says something. He looks at me and says who you are... He had forgotten who I was. I broke down, I couldn’t believe that my own grandfather had forgotten who I was it was the worst feeling anyone can feel left the room I could not bare to stay there anymore. Couple of days went by and that s when I received that dreadful call from my grandmother, she said to me that my grandfather was no longer with us. Hearing my grandmother say that to me. That’s a feeling that I never want to experience again, I felt guilty, mad, sad, so many other emotions that I could not explain. I felt very guilty because I felt like I could have helped him somehow or just been there for him more. This was a life changing impact that I myself was not ready for.
This tragedy mad me view life very differently, it made me realize that you have to enjoy life and live everyday with no regrets. Although my grandfather was sick he did not let that take over him, he was still that cheerful happy man that knew how to make me smile. He was a fighter, he fought with this sickness until the day he died, he