Changed Forever

Changed Forever

It was September 13, 1990. I can remember the day just as if it had happened yesterday. When I went to bed the previous night I would never have thought that one single event would change my life forever.

At the age of eighteen my parents were both young and immature. Neither of them wanted to nor felt that they could raise a child. When I was three my parents divorced and went their separate ways. From this point on and even most of my life before that, I lived with my Grandmother Lou and my Aunt Franny. I'm lucky and very glad that my Grandmother stepped up and allowed me to live with her. She even went as far as having guardianship papers drawn up. She did more for me than was ever expected of her. I only wish I could have told her how much I appreciated all she did for me.

Our house was two stories and this was before central air was popular. My bedroom was upstairs and it got awfully hot during the summer. Being September it was hot and we were enjoying the last bits of summer. Because it was so hot in my room, my grandmother allowed me to sleep downstairs on the couch or sometimes I was allowed to sleep with her. For some reason that night I decided to sleep on the couch.

When I awoke the following day I knew that something was wrong. My Dad was there and that was very weird. He normally came for dinner every evening, but for him to be there in the morning was just unusual. As he walked out of my Grandmother's bedroom, I asked him what he was doing here. The look on his and my Aunt Franny's face told me that what ever the reason was, it wasn't a good one. He came over and sat down on the couch beside me. My Aunt Franny started crying and left the room. Seeing her cry made me start to cry. I think this made it even harder for my Dad to tell me what had happened. He said that my Grandma had passed away in her sleep. I felt absolutely lost. I wondered if maybe I had slept with her last night if I could have done something to save her life. But yet, what could I have done?

Dad told me that when my Aunt couldn't get my Grandmother awake that she called him to come over. She was scared and didn't know what else to do. When he arrived and couldn't wake her, he called the ambulance. They appeared not long after I was given the horrible news. My Aunt then came and told me that I needed to go and get dressed. I asked her what I should wear, school clothes or plays clothes. I didn't know! She told me that play clothes would work for now, and that I wouldn't be going to school for a few days. Not going to school was great, regardless of what kept me from going. While I was getting dressed I remember looking out my bedroom window and seeing the hearse take my Grandmother away. I never got to say goodbye to the one person, I felt, who really loved and cared about me.

When I went back downstairs, my Dad and Aunt were sitting at the kitchen table making phone calls. As I sat there, they made call after call. It seemed then that they made hundreds of them. My Uncle Bud was at work, so my Dad told my Aunt Debbie (Uncle Bud's wife) that she needed to get him home as soon as possible. They had also called my other three Aunts and the rest of my Grandmother's family. About an hour later, most of the family had arrived at our house. My Aunt Sherry was not there yet, she was making arrangements for her son to fly home from the Navy boot camp.

I remember exactly when my Uncle Bud walked in our back door. The look on his face