"Goodbye For Now" by Alyssa S

I always had some kind of connection to my grandpa. My grandpa lived in San Diego with my grandma, aunts, and uncles. My grandpa was the first person to ever teach me how to write in Spanish. One day when I was about five or six, he sat me down with a piece of paper and pen he had found and told me to write “Pop quiere un vaso de agua” which translated in English is “Pop wants a glass of water”. At first I thought, “How am I going to write this if I’m barely in first grade” but I gave it a try and I sounded out every letter and actually got it right on my first try.

My grandpa was the reason why I’m not afraid of any kind of animal because he kept pigeons, chickens, bunnies, roosters, etc.  You name the type of animal, he had it.  When I was about two, I would bug my grandma every day I visited to take me out to see the chickens. But I didn’t know how to say the word “chicken” so I would put my hands out in front of me and try to make my hands the size of a chicken and shake them back and forth. My grandma didn’t know what in the world I was doing so she followed me into the backyard and I pointed to the chicken coop. She thanks my grandpa for that and to this day she still makes fun of me for shaking my hands in the shape of a chicken.

            When it was my older sister and I at the time, we would stay with my grandpa and everyone for the summer or Christmas break. Every weekday my grandpa would call us to watch a show in Spanish called “El Chavo del Ocho”. Then at one o’clock we would watch this Spanish dating show that my mom said we weren’t allowed to watch.

            I was young and I never experienced what it was like to lose a family member. So July 6, 2007 changed me and how I viewed life forever. I remember that day clearly. My grandpa was building a big house in Tijuana so that everyone in the family could live together there. Tijuana is located in Mexico for those who might not know where that is. He left in the morning after he watered his white roses and flowers. He usually came home at about five so he could watch his Rocky Balboa movies. But he never came home. I told myself he’ll be back tomorrow morning and water his flowers and roses so I went to sleep to not think about it. The next day I woke up and my grandpa still wasn’t home. I tried to be calm because my grandma was starting to become over whelmed and scared. I remember police officers came over to the house to ask my family questions about my grandpa. My uncle eventually found him dead at the house he was building in Tijuana. From what I can remember, my grandpa was fixing a sink in one of the bathrooms and stood up way too fast. He fainted because he became too light headed so he ended up hitting his head on the sink. When he hit his head it caused some damage to his brain because he previously had brain surgery a few years earlier. My grandpa passed away three days before my eleventh birthday. It was a tough time but I knew I had to be strong for my family.

I learned to accept that it’s a part of life to lose someone you love, and that all you can do is just to enjoy your time with them while you can.