“Miracles don’t happen. You make them happen. They’re not wishes or dreams or candles on a cake. They’re not impossible. Reality is real. It’s totally and completely under my control.” ? Julie Anne Peters, Far From Xanadu. 

It all started with my grandma saying “Grandpa has cancer.”
Him having cancer was probably the worst thing I have ever heard. No, I didn’t cry when I first found out that he had cancer. Maybe I was in shock. I didn’t want to believe something like that happened to someone so near and dear to us. Four years flew by of him having cancer. I watched him suffer from day to day, everyday really. I watched how it really hurt him more than anything. Chemo was his big challenge. Then came the day of our biggest challenge; he passed.

I was in study hall, doing my work like I was supposed to be doing. All day, I had a really bad feeling in my stomach that I hated a lot. Then came the reason to that bad feeling. I was called to the office at around 2:30 in the afternoon. There was my great aunt and my aunt waiting for me. I saw the tears in their eyes.

“What’s wrong?” I asked softly.

“We’ll tell you when we get in the car.” My aunt said sadly with eyes that explained the hurt she felt inside.

They checked me out from school and we slowly walked to the car. I opened the door that would lead to the revealing of the hurt. We all buckled up, and sat there quietly for a few moments.
Finally I asked, “So what’s wrong? Why are you guys crying so much?”

My aunt took the saddest deep breath I have ever heard and said “Grandpa passed at about 1:30 today.”

I sat there staring out the window as my great aunt and my aunt both looked at me for a response in which I had none. I couldn’t even cry. I don’t even know why. I didn’t feel hurt, I didn’t feel sad. I felt actually relieved only a little. My great aunt started her car and we drove home. I sat in the car staring blankly out the window and finally we approached the house, the house in which the death still remained.

I got out of the car and walked up the gravel drive-way. Inside there was already a lot of people that knew about his death before me. I looked around a little confused. I couldn’t wrap my head around what was going on. Finally, after standing there for awhile, they asked if I wanted to see him. I relented a little but then said yes. They opened the door to where death didn’t even linger in the air. When I saw him laying there, motionless, not breathing, that’s when it all kicked in and I realized that this was real. I felt tears start rolling down my face. At first they were soft tears but then my cry became heavier.

We had to wait for the people from the funeral home to come get him. I sat in the room with him the whole time. I remember sitting there watching his chest waiting for him to breath again, but he didnt. After about a half hour, the people from the funeral home came and got him. I watched them wheel him outside to their car and I watched them leave.

Miracles are not my thing. Things happen for a legitimate reason. It was just how life planned it. You’re the only person that can make miracles happen but in a situation like this, you can’t. All you do is wait and see what life gives you. In this case, it gave us lemons. We couldn’t make sweet lemonade from it, only sour tasting juice.