Preview

The Demise of My Grandmother

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1628 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Demise of My Grandmother
The Demise of My Grandmother
Knowing My Grandmother Would Die in a Few Days
Death can be cruel sometimes. It can replace happiness with grief and sorrow. It could take the life of any person without expecting it. But some, especially old people, like my paternal grandmother are given an expected date of expiration. You see, my grandmother had cancer. She was not ruffled by the news; in fact, she was the most calm among those around her. My grandmother was a woman of strong will. Her courage and determination knew no bounds. After my grandfather's untimely death in her mid-thirties she single-handedly managed the affairs of the household.
What started as a mole on her left foot soon affected other parts of the body. At first, she did not realize that the mole was a condition of skin cancer. Brushing it off, she continued her daily life until one day; she noticed that it had grown larger in size. Rushing to the hospital, she found out that she had cancer and that it was too late to diagnose it. She faced it admirably. Her disease shut the mechanisms of her body down one by one until eventually she was bed-ridden. A woman who dealt with the everyday situations of life with energy and enthusiasm had to spend the last days of her lying life on a bed.
My heart just stopped as I read the letter which said that my grandmother was about to die in two weeks. My head started spinning. Who will I turn to for emotional support in times of hardship? Who will be there for offering advice? I had no answer.
My parents were exasperated by the news of her disease. They knew that she would die, yet they could not contemplate life after her death. My mother was a very sensitive person. A single day did not pass without her shedding tears thinking about my grandmother. My father, on the other hand, was a man who kept his emotions to himself. But sometimes I found him sitting alone with tears streaming down his face.
She resumed her daily habits like reading the newspaper,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    With ever story of victory, comes a drowning idea of failure. Throughout our live, these battles are fought, taking not only mental strength, but physical as well. Some of these battles are chosen, while the rest flank from behind. With this in mind, a story of victory must be told, on behalf of my Aunt, Joenell. Her battle took place in April, of 2009, she went to the Suttee Delta hospital, in Antioch California for a doctor’s visit, for fear that something was wrong, during this visit she informed her doctor that she felt a not on her left breast. Soon after, she had a mammogram, and an ultrasound done, revealing three cancerous lumps. As the doctor went into detail, she started to realize the gravity of the situation. For the first time; at the age of 59, she was confronted with the most life threating event she had ever faced. So for a second opinion, she went to the Epic Cancer center, also in Antioch California. Certainly, the last thing anyone would like to hear during a doctor’s visit, she knew there would be some decisions to be made, time to study up.…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When she passed I cried, for days and days I cried. I felt like someone had just torn away a huge chunk of my heart and replaced with tears and grief. My mother tells me I am just like my grandmother. I love helping others, hearing their problems and giving insight. My grandmother, she would listen and give advice and she helped me learn a lot of things about myself that I never knew. I am writing this essay, but all I can think about is how much her personality captivated me to be who I am today and that I want to make people feel better about themselves. I want that more than anything. I want to motivate. I want to help someone find the light at the end of a dark tunnel. I want to listen and learn from people dealing with struggles, help them…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    I have left for extended periods for professional or academic ventures in the past but Vanessa and I both are deeply rooted in my parent’s home. Between December of 2008 and July of 2009 Vanessa lost a grandmother, two great grandmothers and a great grandfather. She was blessed with seven years of her life in which she was able to get to know the generation of people that she had come from. In 2005 her father moved in with his elderly mother and grandmother after his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer; shortly thereafter my maternal grandfather began to rapidly deteriorate, physically and mentally, at which time he moved in with us. Vanessa gained a great respect for the elderly as well as life experiences and knowledge one can only gain by exposure to older generations; however, these blessings came with lessons in illness and death and the real life challenge of coping with the sadness of end of life deterioration and the loss of loved ones. Vanessa understood that death was the inevitable end to life in the flesh, but she also understood that her loved ones were starting a new life in heaven. Instead of displaying exclusively classic signs of grief that would normally be seen in a child her age under the circumstances, she approached coping with a bitter sweet perspective that…

    • 1517 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    You’re visiting the hospice for the twenty third day in a row, the bright flickering of the fluorescents and the squeaking of the linoleum floor greet you as you walk in. You are visiting your great grandmother, whose ninety three years old with a broken neck, who is unable to speak or eat. She hasn’t talked to you in several weeks due to the feeding tube and has lost the ability to move. She is a hollow shell of the woman she once was and her bright blue eyes have been fading endlessly every day. Her funny and bubbly attitude has become crushed and every single day as you leave you think to yourself if she should still continue living or not with the way she is. That’s when she’s able to finally talk and whispers “I don’t want to live anymore,”…

    • 1688 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    I could tell people this is why I don’t try or want to do anything but I don’t because I know that my grandma would never want. I feel that anyone going through the loss of a friend or family member should always think of the positive outlook instead of the negative. Looking at the negative side of it can create all different kinds of problems for a person. If you look at the positive you can use that as motivation to do anything in life. Life can get hard but you can never let the hardships depict and destroy your life. You aren’t on this earth for a long time so you have to make the best of…

    • 1399 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    I’ve been told the impact of a parent’s passing can carry on for years or forever. I was my mother’s primary care giver for two years. In her last four months, along with hospice, I took care of her full time along with maintaining my full time job. She passed in her home surrounded by me and my other two siblings in January. Just three months later my dad, who was not married to my mom, died unexpectedly in his sleep. I am still in the tender times of grief from my mother’s and father’s deaths. Who would think I could fathom writing about such a sorrowful time in addition to writing about the lessons I learned from my mother’s last months and the graceful way she left this earth. I relive this not only because it is kind of…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    What Broke My Father's Heart

    • 4506 Words
    • 19 Pages

    One October afternoon three years ago while I was visiting my parents, my mother made a request I dreaded and longed to fulfill. She had just poured me a cup of Earl Grey from her Japanese iron teapot, shaped like a little pumpkin; outside, two cardinals splashed in the birdbath in the weak Connecticut sunlight. Her white hair was gathered at the nape of her neck, and her voice was low. “Please help me get Jeff’s pacemaker turned off,” she said, using my father’s first name. I nodded, and my heart knocked.…

    • 4506 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wit Movie Analysis

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Death is inevitable. Everything that lives must eventually face death. There are two certainties and guarantees in the passage of life. The indubitable is the birth of an individual and death of the individual. The end of life for an individual is perceived as an enemy to humanity and a horrid event the individual and family are encountering. The pronouncement of the death is an afflictive and gut wrenching pain for the caregiver as well as the family. While dying can be considered a joyous occasion for the person dying, the thought of death is faced with uncertainty and fear. The dying often experience grief. Although the dying is experiencing grief, the semblance is not the same as the gut wrenching pain the caregiver will understand. The…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nobody wants to die, but death is an inevitable and complex phenomena. To say goodbye to loved one is always difficult. In some cases, it is harder when death comes sooner than later by some serious diagnosis. I think the most important point that a health-care professional needs to consider on the subject of death, dying or grieving is to respect the wishes of patients and families. Health-care professionals should provide training and education about death, dying, and bereavement to the families. Also, healthcare providers should be familiar with the ethics and cultures of the patients and families which they belong to. Death, dying or grieving processes can be culturally or traditionally different among patients. “Some physicians can keep…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine looking down at your phone and seeing an incredibly long text message from your best friend. This is inscrutable coming from her, so you start to panic. As you open the message, your heart drops as she reveals that her grandmother, the person she is closest to in the world, has just passed away. This happened to me late my junior year of high school, and my heart broke for her. Concerned, I immediately ordered a large cheese pizza and peach iced tea, her favorite comfort foods, and rushed to her house.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Illness of someone dear can cause a lot of change to a person’s life. It can scare a person as well as make them uneasy. In the story Ella’s mom is fighting cancer. “…her mother with an IV needle in her arm, the steady drip from the bag of orange liquid, her father speaking softly to himself as he paced the room, her mother shaking so hard she had to be tied down.”(3) Ella’s whole family was affected by their mother’s illness. They were afraid to see where life would take them next.…

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In regards to death and dying, the United States, historically, has inadequately acknowledged the existence of death, the process of dying, and the appropriate ways in which individuals should and must grieve. The fear of death and loss in the United States is so overpowering, it has permeated into our culture and the language we use surrounding death and dying. Additionally, our tremendous fear has fundamentally shaped how, we as a society, perceive and treat those with terminal illnesses. As a result of our failure to acknowledge the existence of death and the proper methods in which to cope with dying, we have lost sight of what it means for an individual to live the last chapters of their life, not as a gradually decaying vegetable, but with dignity and joy for life and living.…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Support Group Papers

    • 1227 Words
    • 5 Pages

    We all know we have and expiration date on this earth, but we have some people that’s just too dependent on their parents like the 3-5-year-old group they don’t know no better they might grow old to forget that person ever existed in they life. Steve jobs says, “death is a destination that we all share. No one has ever escaped it.” He’s say that we might not want someone to die but no one can escape death, because our expiration date is also known as our death…

    • 1227 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Regardless, it is commendable that they are able to come to terms with something that scares us so deeply. In “The Good Short Life” Dudley Clendinen states “That is the weird blessing of Lou. There is no escape, and nothing much to do. It’s liberating” (Clendinen). End of life practices are not acknowledged many times because they are an anomalous notion for those who are young and healthy to grasp. For those who are never satisfied with life constantly in search of better experiences, opportunities, and relationships, deciding to willingly relinquish grasp of life is strange. However, for those who have lived a long life or for those suffering from a disease that has no significant treatment or cure there is greater awareness of an imminent promise of death. Since death is promised, and at an accelerated rate for the sick and elderly, it is best to enjoy life to the fullest and welcome it as “one of life’s greatest, most absorbing thrills and challenges” (Clendinen). Instead of enduring continuously deteriorating health and life quality in an attempt to hold on to a few poor months or years of life, many elderly people opt to respectfully bow out, enjoying “the good short…

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Life is tough, sweet, tragic, romantic, desperate, fulfilling, and hard. But worth it. See life is a precious thing and not to be taking for granted. They have all the mottos out there like, “You only live once” and “Live everyday like your last”. But how are you supposed to live it like your last when you have no experience nor idea how to do so? Does the same apply to death? Death is never planned. “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” I’ve had a second hand experience in this theory. August 23, 2007 was a pretty relaxed day. I went outside and played with my sisters and brother. Blue skies, crisp air and slight wind added to our fun as we were throwing round a Frisbee that kept drifting as the air took control. Minutes later my mom’s sisters parked their car in the empty parking spaces. My auntie Gale and my auntie Ernestine. They came and surrounded us in love and treats. I remember stopping and watching my aunties laugh at our actions and the way they engaged in our youth and wondered why it couldn’t always be this simple for families. As I walked over hours and it was time for my aunties to depart, my auntie Ernestine was the one I asked the question of why life could not be like this every day and she gave the straightest answer possible. “Challenges are different for everyone and you never know what people are going through.” I let her words sink deep into my mind and held on to them forever. Sadness and joy filled the air as hugs and kisses were passed around during their dismissal. And since it was almost 10pm, we said our goodnights and sweet dreams. Three days later, Peace. Quiet. Calm. Down. The atmosphere was blank. No plans. No movements. No action. Nothing. My mom had left us with a friend in the middle of the night. I’m thinking she’s going all out for my birthday which is in 7 days. After…

    • 817 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics