I remember waking up and the house was completely empty except for my sister and me. This was unusual. Where were mom and dad? We knew the answer deep down but didn’t want to believe it. We were dreading the truth. Walking down the stairs hand in hand with my sister felt like an eternity. Stair after stair after stair.


There we saw it. A little sticky note sitting on the kitchen table. On most days we like seeing sticky notes in the morning because they say things like “You’re such a great daughter, we love you” or “Have a great day girls!” But not this morning. We didn’t want there to be a sticky note because we knew it wasn’t a positive one. Couldn’t we just crumple it up and throw it out pretending it never happened? No, this was reality and we couldn’t escape it.

Those first three words on that little pink sticky note were all it took for us to fall into each others arms. “Grandma stopped breathing.” We had been dreading this day for 16 years, but it had caught up with us without an invitation. She had been so unstable for 16 years that we felt with every good-bye, that it could be our last.

But those last five days before she passed away were different. Our whole family would sit around her bed, listening to and praying with the holy angels, every moment of the day. Her eyes never opened once in those five days, and not a word came out of her mouth, but we all knew she was listening to everything each one of us said.

That last night we all knew it was the last, but we lived it like it wasn’t. We didn’t want it to be the end of her life. We knew our lives would never be the same without her. We were scared.

I will never ever forget the last words she ever said to me. It was six days before she passed away, and it took all her strength to say, “I love you Paigey, keep on running.”