In may of 1999, my mother was graduating from college. Two days later my grandma called us all up for a family meeting. She told us that she had Lung Cancer. She was the main person who raised me besides my dad, because my mom was never really there.
My grandma started Chemo, but she was only on it for one round before she ended it. She felt that it was not worth what it was putting her through. One day my dad, my brother, my sisters, and I were playing cards. Then my grandma came out there and it looked like she was playing with the dirt on the ground. She would pick up a feather or a piece of hair and put it in a different square of the tile. Us kids were all laughing, we laughed until tears streamed down our faces. My father asked her, " Mom what are you doing?" She replied with a simple smile and innocent smile on her face, " I am organizing the dirt on the floor." I felt so much pity in my heart, but the sight was unbelievably funny. I wish now though that I had not laughed at her.
In June of that same year, the final blow came to my grandmother. We got a call early one June morning that my Uncle Rick had died from complications with phenomnia. My grandma had always been very excited that she was lucky enough to not to have buried any of her children. This was the final straw for her, even as we left for our final family vacation she was not the same.
The family vacation will definitley be one of those memories that I never get ride of. I will always carry it with me. I remember that we went to Florida, to visit her side of the family. After that we went on through to Tennessee. There part of my Dad's family resided. After that we went on North to Michigan. The rest of my dad's family, and some of my grandma's family lived there. That was also where my Uncle Rick is buried.
While in Michigan my dog got pregnant and my grandmother, who had always wanted to live to see the turn of the century, said that she would live to see the puppies born. Then on September 8, 1999 our dog gave birth to 9 puppies, but two of them were still born. My father took one of the puppies and put it in my grandmothers hand and said, " Mom the pupppies are here you can leave now."
That night there was a terrible thunderstorm. I was planning on getting up extra early just to sit next to my grandmother and talk to her even though she could not talk back. All of us kids and my father were up really late that night because of the storm, so my father did not wake me up because he thought I needed my sleep. Then I woke up and what did I hear, but my mother saying to my dad's boss, " When he get's there send him home, because his mother-in-law has passed away." I was so distraught. I could not believe it. When they came and took her body I just crawled in her bed and cried for an hour and a half. All I wanted was for her to be back. I miss my mentor and hope that I can be half the women she was!