Everything Changed in the Blink of an Eye

So I’m doing a 52 week writing challenge with my friend Marissa 🙂 Here is my first post, and it deals with change, which is what this blog is about.

It was in the Fall semester of 2013. I came home from taking my LAST final. My then ‘friend,’ whom I was just dating came over so we could hang out. He came in and Grandma came to say hello. We sat and watched Doctor Who and made out while Grandma was in her room. As Gmo (that’s his name) and I “came up for air” he asked me to officially be his girlfriend. I was completely ecstatic because I REALLY liked him.

     Gmo went home later, and my folks came home from work. We all had dinner, and just went about the rest of our evening. I had made plans with Gmo for the next day. I also planned to sleep in some since I hadn’t really been getting much sleep, because of finals. It was the next day, and I was sleeping pretty good (at least it felt like it). However, something in me told me to wake up. Something was wrong. Sure enough, my phone was ringing (or rather vibrating loudly). It’s amazing I heard my phone since it was on vibrate at the time. My Grandma was calling me from inside the house in the kitchen, which is something she never did. Usually if she needed something, she would just come and get me herself. So at that moment, I knew something was REALLY wrong. I get in the kitchen and she’s red in the face and sweating profusely.

     Grandma had diabetes, and these were symptoms of low blood sugar. So I ran and got her meter, and we check her sugar. It was normal… Something was very wrong because Grandma also started complaining of chest pains. This worried me, so I called my mom who was at work at the time. She looks up my grandma’s symptoms, and of course, they are symptoms of a heart attack in women. BAM. My whole world changed right in that instance. “Why?,” you may ask, “Just call 911 and get her to a hospital, you’ve caught the symptoms in time?”

     Well, that’s exactly what I did. I rode with her in the ambulance, cancelling my plans with my now new boyfriend. We get to the hospital, and everything just goes downhill from there. Grandma never got to come home. She suffered another hear attack later, which caused her to stop breathing. They put her on life support, and when Grandma eventually woke up, she was never the same. Everyone said she was “off” because she had had lack of oxygen to the brain when she stopped breathing. Looking back, I think Grandma was stuck in limbo. Not really alive, but not quite dead yet. Her speech was slurred, and she would often talk about seeing loved ones who had already passed. She ate less and less everyday. We were in and out of nursing homes and the hospital between December 2013 and April 2014.

     Finally, on April 20, 2014, around 7:00/7:30 a.m., the Lord finally called my Grandma home. It was Easter Sunday morning. We were now in the Spring semester of 2014, and the WEEK before finals. I could hardly concentrate to study. I do not think I could have gotten through that week without my parents or my boyfriend of four months at that time. A week came and went, and we laid my Grandma’s body to rest…

     You never know when your life is going to change drastically. I had no idea that fate would choose to wait till after my finals to change my life in the blink of an eye. I didn’t know the Lord would choose to wait till this wonderful young man would come in my life, to take my Grandma home with Him. Everything happens for a reason. No one can change that. As much as I wish my Grandma were still here, especially now with my college graduation coming up, I am thankful for the people I have now. I REALLY miss my Grandma. Now more than ever with festivities coming up, but I can’t change that. I know she’s watching from up above. I’m just glad the Lord chose to bring Gmo in my life at that exact moment, because I very seriously do not think I could’ve made it through without him. I love him dearly for it, and I don’t think he’ll ever truly understand what he did for me.

     Anyways, that’s how my life changed in the blink of an eye. I didn’t mean to get all sappy and depressing, but that’s my story. This is living proof that when change comes, there is always something good that comes from it! 

Gmo (my bf), me, and my niece Zoe

My Grandma: JoAnn Henry

(10/02/1931-04/20/2014)

Tags: blogs, change, changes, life