On my dad’s side of the family my grandpa died. We all knew this would happen. I never knew him that well. I felt couldn’t cry because I had school and I needed to be busy. I took a five day absence to travel from Las Vegas, Nevada to Walnut Creek, California. During the trip I listened to music, had conversations with my family, and stared at the window contemplating my own death. I spent the time studying at my one my rich relatives’ house. Grandpa didn’t expect to die just yet, at least that’s what I think, because maybe he thought he was too hearty for his diet of fried chicken to succumb to it. I made a joke about that just to break the ice – him enjoying all th chicken he wanted without guilt in his own personal heaven. At the funeral home I felt the regret and sorrow of everyone’s eulogies, especially my dad’s which was the most painful for me to endure. We took pictures out front, it was weird to me that everyone was cheerful after all that. But, I played along with it anyway shouting: Carpe diem! (Seize the day!), All life is fleeting!, We’re not getting any younger! Actually I was the one being weird, they were giving me looks, I didn’t notice. We stuffed our faces at a japanese buffet. I realized after finishing my dinner my sister was missing. I frantically looked around the restaurant and outside for her. She came back safely and was scolded for not asking permission to leave. I didn’t cry at all that week, not a single tear. Until I got back home and watched Where The Wild Things Are online. It had a teacher saying the sun would die someday to his students, and Max couldn’t make all the Wild Things happy. I cried when he had to leave them alone on the island again not knowing what to do.
I just told my whole experience of how I dealed with my grandpa’s death. From what I can list I grieved by:
Talking about my feelings to my family, kept in touch with my relatives, made myself busy working, thought about death, listen to some tunes, shared some laughs and memories, pleasured in eating to my heart’s content with friends, staying close together, and catharsis from watching a sad movie.
I learned that life doesn’t last forever, with all it’s pleasures and anxieties. So I made the best of it and should try everyday to do as many things that I enjoy with the ones I love.
Because, when my end comes, they’ll be there for me.