“ I got one”, I said to my grandfather. It was my first time going fishing and I had already caught my first fish, wow. It was my grandfather who had taken me fishing, he was always a good fisher because he always caught the big ones. Let me tell you a little about him, he was Canadian and loved hockey, he had always joked around with me and told me Mario Lemieux was his brother because they had the same last name, Lemieux. He was always one to play jokes and mess around with people, one time me and him played a joke on my dad and taped the sink sprayer and it got my dad that morning and me and him had the best laugh from it. When I was a kid he was my best friend we always did everything together like taking walks and and playing football in the backyard, or even going on the sled in the winter. After that winter we went out and got a dog named sheeba, she was a yellow lab that always had a boat load of energy and always ran around after the ball when we played catch in the yard. When we were playing catch I threw the ball extra hard because sheeba almost caught it and it went behind the fence and my grandfather went behind there and stepped on a fire ant hill and got attacked +by millions of them and had to go to the hospital for it. It was short after that my dog had gotten very ill and had to be put down it was one of the worst times for me.

Dad: im sorry JJ but shes gone
Me: this can’t be happening
Dad: its true
Me: but ... But this is not real
Me: I wish she was fine and not sick
Dad: everything will get better sometime
Me: you promise?
Dad: yes i do . Now lets go play catch in the yard.
Me: okay.

Sooner or later I realized that it has to happen sometimes and people and animals have to go sometimes and i learned that later on in my life. Thats when i found out that my grandfather was getting very ill and he wasn’t going to live very longer. I stayed strong through it and kept my hopes high and went on with school and life. Till I thought that he was getting better come to find out the exact opposite was happening. It recently came to that anyday now he could go and as i went through this time every little thing like seeing kids fishing or hearing them play ball in the yard just kept bringing me down and me having dreams of all of the times we had together. Until the day came where he passed I didn’t find out for a while because i was at my other grandmothers for the day and i thought everything was and that my parents had just went out shopping or something. Come to find out they went to see him before he left. still to this day i will never forget him and when I play sports it feels like when im on the field or on the court he is there with me and always watching. Everytime i go to eat lobster the sweet smell of a lobster dinner wasnt to sweet anymore without him. It felt like there was a chunk of all of our hearts missing because he was so special to everyone and that he watches over all of us. I remember driving by the old house with the green shutters and just seeing me and him in the yard playing catch or kicking the ball around. To this day our memories will never be forgotten Rest In Peace Al.