The death of my grandma not only took a toll on me, but also took a toll on my family big; time. My grandma died December 5th, 2011. I will never forget the heart wrenching call I received saying my grandma had a stroke and rushing to the hospital not knowing what to expect. When we got there, we found out that she had a major stroke, causing a massive hemorrhage in her brain. The doctors gave her one hour to live, but she beat those chances when she reached two hours. She waited until our entire family was there, including my brother from ames, and my other brother and aunt from Des Moines. She fought so that everyone could be there. She fought for her family.

When everyone finally got there she started to relax, and her breathing went back to normal. There were periods of time when she went almost a minute without breathing. We would tell her my brothers or my aunt Jill are coming, and she fought for them. We thought she had a chance to live, but the doctors kept on telling us that she didn't have much longer. We got her last rights thinking she would pass within the next hour. She kept on fighting and lasted three hours until they told us they were going to move her into a different room upstairs. All 11 family members stayed with her and never left her side.

The doctor came in and my grandpa wanted to fly her to Rochester, Minnesota to see if they could do anything. We called my grandpas Nero surgeon, and he said if she's still alive in the morning we will fly her there. Little did we know she would hang on all the way through the night. Her breathing and heart rate were normal. The only thing that wasn't going well was her temperature kept on rising. My grandma didn't give up she fought for her family until she couldn't fight anymore.

My cousins, my mom, my aunt and uncle, and I needed to sleep so the nurses got us some blankets and pillows and we all fell asleep. At 6:00 a.m., my dad came in the room where we were all sleeping to tell us it’s time because grandma isn't doing too well. We all sat in her room telling her how much we love her and that it’s okay to go now. At 6:15 a.m. on Monday, December 5th, Treva Marie passed away.

My grandma had always been a fighter. Fourteen years before this also happened my grandma had developed cancer. She fought for her family even though she had a 10% chance of living. Even though the doctors didn't think she would make it, she beat the odds. If I have learned anything from my grandma it would be to fight for whatever you want and never give up because life and family are precious things.