It was four in the morning,everyone was asleep. The phone was ringing and ringing till my dad wakes up and checks who it is. It was my grandma calling. My dad wakes up my mom, telling her,

“Your mom is calling you!”                                            

My mom replies, “What!”
My mom frantically runs down the stairs and picks up the phone,
My grandma screaming,“Tanya your dad keeps throwing up and not making sense what he is saying!”
“I don’t know what to do?”
My mom responds frantically saying “why are you calling me I don’t know what to do except tell you to call 911!”
My Mom asked, “How long has this been going for?”
My grandma said, “ since two in the morning.”
My mom said demanding, “no, call 911 right now this has been going on for too long!”

It is now the afternoon of that same day, I was just getting out school with my brother and sister. I was in the sixth grade, my sister in third grade, and brother in preschool. So my mom picked us up and my mom then tells us our plan for the day like usual.
She said, “we are going to get something to eat then go see your grandpa in the hospital.”
My sister and I responded saying “why is grandpa in the hospital?”
I said “what? why? what happened to grandpa?”
My mom said, “he is very sick right now, he had a stroke.”
I asked, “what is a stroke?”
My mom responded saying“ He just not feeling well he is very sick right now.”
I looked at my mom and she looked very devastated. I could not believe my grandpa was in the hospital. I was so worried and scared for him. So we drove off to the hospital.

In the hospital, we waited in the waiting room until the doctor said we can go into the room to see my grandpa. The time finally came to see my grandpa and the first thing he said to me when I told him hi was
“Hi carlos..I mean Eric...no Jacob.”

I knew something was seriously wrong already. Him forgetting my name and calling me as my  uncle's name as mine name was bad enough but what was worst was him also having a hard time remembering my brother,sister,and my mom as well. The weird thing about his stroke was he looked perfectly fine but his mind wasn't. When, my mom asked him simple question he had a hard time answering them, so this was serious and I was really worried for him.

The doctor comes in and tells us, “we are going to have transport him to rehab center because there has been damage on the left side of his brain which affects his motor skills.”

“In other words he has a weak right side.”

My mom asked, “so he has no movement of the right side? Like how badly damage is the right side?”
The doctor replies, “It is not badly damage because he just had a minor stroke.”

“If the stroke was any bigger is whole right side could have been paralyzed but he is very fortunate that he is a very healthy man,”

My mom asked, “will he get any better?”
The doctor replies “he has to go to therapy and we will see.”

We left the hospital and we were all sad. I felt like a dark cloud ready to burst into tears.           

                                                                                                                                 
My grandpa's stroke was nearly three years ago and I will never forget that scary day. My grandpa is a strong 76 year old man.He still  has a great sense of humor and still dances like a machine. He may not be at 100% but he is getting there, He even composes songs about his grandchildren that make us all laugh. Although, I miss how active my grandpa used to be and riding in his big blue rig on many summer vacations I still love him. I know my grandpa will get better soon because my grandpa is a strong man and everyday he gets a little better.