Because I am only 17 years old, there are very few moments that I can describe as truly life changing. This particular moment was the biggest shock to my life that I had ever experienced.
It was spring break of 2012, my family and I were going to Florida to stay at a resort. I was particularly excited for this, as this resort contained several golf courses. My dad and I are the golfers in the family. I had been recently preparing for my first season with Clarkston’s golf team. It was our first day in tropical Florida, finally away from the dreariness of Michigan that had been the past winter. This means I could finally hit golf balls off of real grass for the first time since last year. It was a good time for it too because the school’s golf season starts right after spring break ends.
We had finally arrived at our hotel room after a long morning of travelling. Everyone’s tired; the bags hadn’t begun to be unpacked. It was time to relax. Then my dad received a phone call. At first, I thought nothing of it, just another phone call. It was my aunt Linda. Why would my dad’s sister be calling him during spring break? This was slightly strange to me, as the two of them didn’t talk on the phone all that much. My dad stepped out onto the balcony and shut the door for privacy. Why would my dad need privacy to talk to aunt Linda? Something popped into my head. A few days before this trip my grandpa was complaining of a pain in his side. This was dismissed as a problem by me as I figured it would be just a strained muscle. I knew that my grandpa was going in to get it checked out. Is this what this call could be about? After all, it was my dad’s and aunt Linda’s father. A slight, worried feeling started creeping up inside me. Something wasn’t right. My dad wasn’t being his normal self out on that balcony. Then I heard my dad yell in a tone that can only be described as desperation, “Please Linda don’t say that!” My mom instantly went out on the balcony to see what was going on. After a short conversation, she comes back in, tears streaming down her face. No kid reacts well to their parents crying. Because of this, I was on the verge of crying myself, and I didn’t even know what was happening. “What is wrong?” I pleaded to my mom, trying to make sense of this. “It’s grandpa. The diagnosis just came in. He has stage 4 liver cancer. They said he has a year to live.” No. This can’t be real. I am in instant denial. My grandpa, the man I’ve always known to be larger than life itself, the one who would always support me in whatever I did, has cancer. It was as if life had just punched me in the face. Everything I knew to be normal was soon going to change. And I will never be the same because of it.
That summer was unlike any others. I can’t imagine what my grandfather was going through on the inside. It’s made me realize how lucky I am for what I am and my health. I can’t even fathom what it would be like to know that you are living in what is most likely the last summer you will ever spend on this earth. But, that is not what a time like this is about. It is about cherishing what you have and making memories with your loved ones with the time you have left. The way my grandfather handled his illness greatly inspired me. There was never a moment when I was spending time with him that he wasn’t positive. But I knew he was going through great pain on the inside, both physically and emotionally. He still put on a smile and a positive attitude to comfort the ones around him though. He was a very prideful man. To him, his greatest accomplishment in his life was his family. He was a huge supporter of all of his grandchildren. One day during that summer we were having lunch at Big Boy, one of my grandfathers favorite restaurants. Another thing he was very proud of was the time he spent with the military during the Korean War. He was a paratrooper, and he loved telling stories about being one. I remember him telling me that he had jumped out of airplanes over a hundred times in his life, which earned him the title of “Jumpmaster”. He was wearing his Korea veteran hat to lunch that day, something he had started doing more and more because he had been losing his hair from the chemotherapy. A man came up to our table and thanked my grandfather for his service in the military. His face lit up like I’d never seen before. The overwhelming look of pride on his face was very touching to me, it even brought a tear to his eyes. Seeing how much joy he got from a simple acknowledgment of his military service inspired me to make a point to always try and thank the veterans I see in public; you never know how much it could mean to someone.
My grandfather passed away on December 6th of that same year at 76 years of age. The time period starting with the diagnosis during spring break to then, had been the hardest times of my life. Although, I am thankful for the life lesson this has taught me. I have realized not