I woke up around ten a.m. It was a nice day outside, the weather was perfect. It was still a little muddy but not as bad as the day before. A couple minutes after I woke up I heard the phone ring. It was my grandma. She must have thought I was my mom because she answered in a sad voice. My first thought was that maybe something was wrong with my grandpa. My grandfather had been sick for a while. He had been diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis a few years before. Then he had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his lung. The doctors made the decision to put him on chemotherapy but it had been making it harder for him to breath. So he was in the hospital. Anyways, I asked my grandma how everything was. She told me that everything was fine and that grandpa had just had a rough night. I was satisfied with that answer so I left to the band festivals.

Plucky, Casey, and I went through all the rehearsals and were ready for performances. My mom had been in Nome that week for a job interview. At about three or four in the afternoon she gave me a call telling me she was going to come pick us up. We were waiting outside watching everybody leaving when we saw her car pull up. We jumped in. After we went to get some pop we dropped Casey off at her house. Once we got to the trailor court we stopped at the row Plucky lives in and as soon as she closed the door behind her my mom said it. “Grandpa Died”. My stomach sank and I felt like I might be sick.

I asked her some questions even though I didn’t really care right then. I didn’t want to cry. Mom was crying and I took a lot not to cry with her. I waited until we pulled up to the house before I ran inside and shut the door. I cried. I cried harder than I had in a long time. My Mom came over to hug me still crying herself. We called my sister Heather, she never answers her phone when we really need to talk to her. After a couple of tries she answered. I passed the phone to my mom. I turned on the TV because I didn’t want to listen to what my mom had to tell her.

I cried that night, and a couple nights after that. I cried the next day at school a little, but I cried the most when I saw my grandma without my grandpa once I got off the plane. My family and I got through the viewing okay, but the great thing was, was that they laughed. We had a lot of fun together. Sometimes I still cry, but only time can make it better, right?