My Great Grandfather

Cherish

There it was. Two weeks in a row. Almost identical phone calls. I simply could not believe what my ears allowed me to take in. I wish I could have been deaf to this news. Yet another tough pill to swallow. Another pill to stick in the back of my throat, one that was not going anywhere anytime soon, lodged like a bullet deep in the artery of a heart. This time it was my great grandfather who had passed away. The week before that, it was my great grandmother. I kept thinking how on earth this could all transpire within such a short time frame. Why was this happening? Why would god take two people away who are dear so to my heart with very little allotted time in between. I was still recovering from the week before and not even close

His death took everybody by surprise and swept the air clean out of our household. It only left behind an eerie feeling of silence and depressed emotions. Nobody could admit how melancholy they truly felt and how heartbroken we all were. We could sit and have family dinner and laugh and talk, but deep down each and every one of us could tell that we were not ourselves. It was like this for the next two days and nights before we had to take the road trip to Wisconsin for the funeral. That was going to be the most difficult part. We could not make it for Thanksgiving that year, so it had been awhile since we had been back to visit. These were not the terms my family and I thought we would be back for. I used to be excited to pack up some of my belongings and take the trip up there with the family, I loved road trips, but this was the first time I lost that excitement and enthusiasm. Now I was aimlessly going through my list of things to bring and half-heartedly packing my suitcase. I was just going through the motions of life and slowly meandering around the house. As I was going through the kitchen, grabbing something to eat and heading back to my room I heard my father crying in the shower. It was the first time in my entire life I had ever heard my father cry. My stomach immediately twisted in knots and I felt sick to my stomach. I knew how truly close my dad was with my great grandfather. They were inseparable and he taught my dad so much. He spent a large majority of his childhood there with grandpa on the farm. Words do not do the justice of how much sorrow I felt for my dad at that moment. I could not imagine what he was thinking. I never talked to him about it or said a word to him. I did not need to ask if he was okay. I knew what the response would be. I just stored that in the back of my mind and moved