Life is strange

Jul 28, 2009

It is sometimes unbelievable how your whole life can drastically change in just 7 days.  I know this isn't really surgery related, but it's me related, therefore is relevant.  Just seven days ago I posted on how incredibly delighted I was that my surgery was approved.  I had no idea that just a few hours later my world would be different.  Shortly after I returned home from work I was making my way to my friend's softball game when my phone rang.  It was my mother, she sounded a bit shaken and she asked me what I was doing.  She said she received a call from a gentleman that attends church with my grandfather and they haven't seen him in nearly two weeks.  She stated that she explained to him that the first weekend we had taken him up to  Detroit to see his other son, my uncle Steve and his family.  She wanted me to go out to his house with her to check on him.  Obviously I care about my family very much and I will drop anything I am doing to help them, so I go with her.  When we arrive at his house we see newspapers stacked up in his mail box and his mail box is full of mail.  This is incredibly like him, so we hurry into the house; luckily I had a key.  When we walked in the house the smell hit us like a brick wall.  We frantically looked around the house calling his name with no answer.  Mom made it into his bedroom and found his body.  I don't remember exactly what she said to me, I don't remember saying anything.  I just remember calling 911 and waiting what seemed like forever.  This past week seemed to just grow longer and longer since that one moment.  At this moment in time, the funeral is over, the family has all gone home, yet I still sit here with the thoughts of what could have been done differently.  Forever I have to live with the thought that mom and I found him.  Every now and then that smell of the house creeps into my mind.  Mom has been struggling with visions of his body, which the coroner determined had been laying there for a week.  I keep thinking we should have checked on him sooner, but it wouldn't have made any difference; the result would be the same.  Within the past seven days I have learned a few things.  I have learned the true character of some of my family members, I've learned the true character of myself.  I have also learned that there are still good neighbors in this world that look out for each other and care about each other.  My grandfather is now gone, and my family will be forever changed, but in it I find hope and thankfulness. I hope that my family is drawn closer because of this, and not pulled further apart.  I am also very thankful for the time my family has had together.  I am thankful that the last weekend my grandfather spent on this earth was on vacation with his family doing things he loved to do.  He got to see his family that he only saw only a few times a year, he got to see his favorite baseball team win a game, he spent some quality alone time with his son at Greenfield Village and shared his knowledge about Thomas Edison and old cars, we ate every meal as a family, sat around and looked at pictures we had recently taken on our digital cameras on the big TV.  I truly think all of that was a great gift from God, that we got that last chance to spend time as a family.  I think because of that, I'm ok.

0 Comments