In the summer of 2011, one year after my granddad died, my grandma wanted to go to Maggie Valley, North Carolina one last time. She and my granddad use to go there every year at the same time and spend a week there together. Once up there, there were many things that changed how I saw the world and how I saw not only my grandma but also my dead granddad.

It was about a 4 hour drive to get there. So on the way up to the hotel, we had a lot of time to talk and catch up with each other. My grandma is one of those people who are tough. She doesn’t cry at anything really, and I guess that’s where I get it from too. The only time I have seen her cry is when her parents died and when her husband died. After the shock on that first day, she is perfectly fine and she can carry on conversations about them and what they did the very next day. So on the way there we talked mainly about him and I learned a lot of things that I never knew about him. I was able to, in a way, see him with me and feel at ease.

Once up there, we went drove up a mountain and along there came many houses that we stopped to look at. Every single house had a memory behind it that my grandma and granddad had shared in the past and they have now been passed down to me. We went to many places that each had a story behind it because of how long my grandparents had been coming here, especially when we walked down to the ice-cream store. Apparently they had gone here a lot of times and just spent time talking to one another and having a good time. This place would have been very painful for other people to come because they would not be able to stand the pain but my grandma did an amazing job.

My granddad has passed on a lot of his traits to me mainly because of how much time I spent with him. We were very close and whatever he ate and loved, I found a way to like it because I wanted to be like him so much. Everything that he use to get up in Maggie Valley is the same thing a got. It reminded everyone of him but no one ever said anything. I saw it in everyone’s eyes though and knew I was causing pain to some of them. How much we were a like is incredible to think of and still brings tears to my eyes today.

That trip was one of the most important trips I will ever take in my life. It helped me to deal with the death of my granddad but not only that, it helped me to really see all of the incredible things that God has created in this world and just fall in love with both God and my granddad even more.