memoir

Life Changing Experience
By: Katie Brewer

I could hear running down below my room leading to the stairs. I said “ Probably just Lauren (my sister) coming upstairs to tell me breakfast was ready”. I happened to be cleaning my room that day because it was a weekend. But I kept listening I heard that the foots steps were louder than Lauren's. I was starting to get scared at that point. I was scared because the running foot steps were my moms and my mom doesn't usually run through the house. In the next couple seconds I got the worst news that anyone could ever hear.
My mom said in a loud voice, “Katie something is wrong with Gunka!” I called my grandfather Gunka. I rushed down the stairs we jumped in the car and hurried to my mimi's house where my sister and I were dropped off until my family knew what was going on. I waited all day for an answer. I left my mimi's house and went outside. I sat on the swing. I prayed that everything was going to be fine, but I knew deep down it wasn't going to be fine. My mom called my mimi and told her to bring us over to our house. I thought to myself, “Ok, everything is fine. Mom didn't say anything about Gunka being sick or dead.”
Some facts about my grandfather was that he smoked making it hard to breathe, and he did not eat that healthy. There is a twist to this story and if you keep reading you will find it out.
My sister and I got home and found my mom in the driveway waiting for us. I could tell she was crying because her eyes were really bloodshot. From that moment I knew Gunka wasn't alive. We got in the truck and rode up to my other grandparents house where my grandfather lived. As we were getting closer I asked “Is Gunka dead?” My mom turned her head and started to cry. I knew that was the worst news ever.
The twist of this story was that 7 weeks earlier my cousin Craig died from a carpenter accident. He fell through a roof in Florida while putting roofing on a building. The roofing was clear and he thought that he had already put paneling down so he started to walk. He fell through the top of the building to the cement floor below, he went head first so even if he lived he would have been crippled.
The doctors thought my grandfather died of a heart attack but a lot of my family still thinks that he died of depression, because he loved Craig a lot and missed him.
My Gunka and I had so many good memories. I remember when I was in kindergarden and he would pick me up after school and we would go to his house and watch “Cat Dog”. I loved that show. I also remember falling asleep in his lap eating Whoppers (melted milk balls). We would always go fishing when it was during the summer. He was just so nice and awesome! I didn't have as many memories with Craig as I did with my grandfather because he was always with his girlfriends or working in Florida. But I remember when I was a little kid and he took me on a Four-wheeler ride. That was fun also.
At the funeral it was miserable and everyone was crying. Even people that were not even family were crying because they missed him. I remember putting pictures of me and my sister in his casket so he would always know that we were with him at all times. The funeral it was very sad. The look on peoples faces were devastating. One persons face that stood out to me is my dads face. My grandfather was my dads father. Just the sounds and the faces he made was very sad. At the time I had never seen him cry which was why it stood out to me. The funeral was here in Newport at the Crosby & Neal Funeral Home.
I missed 2 weeks of school when Craig died. And then when my grandfather died I missed like 3 weeks. I missed him so much. At random times I would break down crying because I thought of him. We buried Craig and Gunka on the same day. But that 4th grade year was the worst but my friends and family helped me through it. I still miss Craig and Gunka and I always will.