Personal Narrative: How Loss Has Changed My Life

Everyone deals with the loss of a loved one in their own separate ways. In my life, loss is what has shaped me into who I am today. Over these seventeen years, I have gone through many losses in my family: an older brother to suicide, an uncle to colon cancer, a grandmother to a heart attack, however, there is one loss in particular, that has changed me in more ways than one.

Every summer my grandfather and I would go on afternoon walks through his quiet and quaint neighborhood of Springfield, Massachusetts. His beloved dog Ashleigh was never not by his side for these walks. He’d ask me about school and at the time, how gymnastics was going for me, just the usual gossip every grandparent wants to know. Though these walks had been just a brief

Each day I would call my mother asking for updates on how he was recovering, yet all she would say is “you’re too young to understand” and hang up. I could feel the pain in her voice through the phone and I could sense something was terribly wrong. Over and over I envisioned that my grandfather never actually woke up from the anesthesia; I wasn’t wrong.

My grandfather’s funeral was another day that I will never forget, it was as if God was showing to me that everything was going to be all right. The date of his funeral was on the day of Dallas’ birthday. Though the day was full of mourning, I knew in my heart that my grandfather was now in heaven, looking down on all of us.

Death is something that we all experience, yet cannot fathom it. We all mourn and we all grieve, and what I believe is different from what someone else may believe. Loss has taught me that everything happens for a reason and that God has a plan and a purpose for whatever path I may take in life. I have now grasped the importance of cherishing precious memories and not taking life for granted. I figure now my grandfather takes his afternoon walks with the angels, and his dog Ashleigh by his