Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The grief and loss process essay
The grief and loss process essay
grief case study
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The grief and loss process essay
I was only 10 years old, such a young girl, when my grandmother passed away. At age ten it’s hard to believe that the world could be so cruel. My mom was always hiding my grandmothers’ sickness from me; she didn’t want it upsetting me. What she didn’t know was that letting me get close to my grandmother in her last year with us really changed my life. My grandma was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer in 2008 I didn’t really know at the time what cancer was or what it could do to a person. The day my mom told me she was sick I was devastated; no one wants a loved one to be sick. I spent as much time at her house as I could, I would go over after school and after dance class and I spent mostly ever weekend with her and the rest of my mothers’ large …show more content…
I was only given two and a half amazing years with her after that day. She passed away on March 10th in 2010. My mother was always very emotional during my grandmas last couple months but on this day when I saw her pull in the driveway and step out of the passenger side door crying like I’ve never seen her cry before I knew something had happened. She didn’t want me to see her crying so she put her head down and walked straight into her room and shut the door. I was already 10 minutes late to dance class so I had to go. It didn’t take long, halfway through class my teacher gets a call and begins to look around the room of girls and her eyes land on me, she calls me over and gives me a huge hug. In the back of my head I was thinking about so many things like: why was my mom crying so much, why was my dad so quite in the car, why is my dance teacher hugging me in the middle of class. And then it hits me, something has happened something so life altering has happen to me, and I wasn’t prepared for it at all. Now, your probably wondering why my grandmothers death has marked my transition from childhood to adulthood, well its what my grandmother left me after she passed away that really changed my
Losing a family member to cancer is like getting hit in the face with a load of bricks. Going through the process is like a never ending journey to hell, especially after the death. I am constantly reminded of the little things, pleasant and spiteful. The love in my heart for my grandmother caused me to experience the most pain in my life.- cancer is an insanely draining, vindictive, not to mention an-emotional rollercoaster.
Living our busy lives no one else in the family could travel to Houston. Grandma was a strong woman. She could overcome anything and cancer was not going to defeat her. When she arrived at the hospital the doctors took a cat scan and figured out that she had stage four melanoma skin cancer. While my mother and grandma were at M.D. Anderson I was at home living a normal life just starting my first high school basketball season. Every night I worried about how she was doing not thinking about my school work or my athletics. A couple weeks later I called grandma and asked her how she was doing and she assured me that everything was going to be okay and that I should not worry about her. That’s how she lived. She never put herself first in any situation and family and friends were her main focus. Grandma would do anything to make her grandkids happy. I told my grandma I loved her and hung up the phone. The next day at school I looked up the percentage of people killed by melanoma skin cancer and the results were not good. One person dies of melanoma every 54 minutes. When I got home that evening I told my dad that I needed to be in Houston with my grandma. He said he didn’t think that he could make it happen with his busy schedule. I called my mom upset realizing that
When I was younger, I remember feeling as though I lived in a bubble; my life was perfect. I had an extremely caring and compassionate mother, two older siblings to look out for me, a loving grandmother who would bake never ending sweets and more toys than any child could ever realistically play with. But as I grew up my world started to change. My sister developed asthma, my mother became sick with cancer and at the age of five, my disabled brother developed ear tumors and became deaf. As more and more problems were piled upon my single mother’s plate, I, the sweet, quiet, perfectly healthy child, was placed on the back burner. It was not as though my family did not love me; it was just that I was simply, not a priority.
Over the next few days, we took it easy. I went back to work. My mom was getting worse as each day went on with a few good days in between, of course. We ended up moving my niece Lexi’s birthday up a few days because we wanted to make sure my mom would be there for it. She, my mom, couldn’t talk as well anymore, but she made the effort to sing for her granddaughter. The day before my niece’s actual birthday, my mom passed away. Her wish had come true, too. She had wanted my dad to be the only one in the room when she went.
"Ring, ring", I wondered who was calling me at this time of evening. "Yes; o.k.; Yes, I'll be there", I said before hanging up the phone. What was wrong, I wondered all that evening that the doctor wanted me to come in to discuss my lab results? I had never been asked to come in to the office after doing blood tests before; when receiving a call as this the mind plays tricks on the person and wild things start popping up in the head.
It was August 8th of 2013 when my dad got a call from my Aunt Theresa. She urged him to come over to her house because she had devastating news. The car ride to her house was quiet. The weather was gloomy, the sky was filled with dark cumulus clouds.When we pulled up to my Aunt’s house, the adults were organized into a small circle. My uncles were supporting my grandma, however, I thought nothing of it. My parents had told me to go inside because they had a matter to attend to. I went inside to hang out with my cousins. I saw them a couple days before, but the feeling of happiness never subsides when I see them.
I can’t begin to express how hard it is for me to stand here before you and give my last respects to my loving mother - name here. From the biography that was handed out you can recall that during the her early years in the united states she studied and worked in New York where she met and married my dad, the love of her life. They spent the rest of their days loyal and in love with one another. Unfortunately, one day my father passed away with cancer at a young age. My dad was the one who suffered the most, but my mom suffered right along with him. She felt powerless, and for my mom- powerlessness turned in to guilt and grief, a painful distress she lived with on a daily basis for the next six years. When he died part of her died! Life for her was never the same again. I was not able to completely understand her loss- until now…
October 10, 2013 was the day my grandmother passed away. While this may not seem to be significant, this was a monumental moment in my life. Prior to her death, I had been grappling with depression for many years, and with her death, it only seemed to intensify. My grandmother had resided with us; she had become almost a second mother to me. Her death was the first death I had ever experienced firsthand. The experience had been traumatic for me to say the least, but it had also taught me a lot about myself, and life. In the months following her death, it seemed that all my relatives began passing away. My grandfather passed away, two of my uncles passed away, and then my aunt.
Throughout my life, many of my family members have struggled with their health. My uncle had colon cancer and both of my grandmothers had breast cancer. Experiencing cancer's effects firsthand instilled a sense fulfillment with helping those who can not help themselves. Through my church, we would volunteer by doing various service projects: feeding the homeless, building and painting houses for those who have undergone rough circumstances, and spending time with people going through drug rehabilitation. Every single time I would come home and be ashamed of myself because I could have done more. I could have stayed up later and packed more lunches or I could have put aside more time to build more houses. My drive to help people progressively
Imagine having to wake up each day wondering if that day will be the last time you see or speak to your father. Individuals should really find a way to recognize that nothing in life is guaranteed and that they should live every day like it could be there last. This is the story of my father’s battle with cancer and the toll it took on himself and everyone close to him. My father was very young when he was first diagnosed with cancer. Lately, his current health situation is much different than what it was just a few months ago. Nobody was ready for what was about to happen to my dad, and I was not ready to take on so many new responsibilities at such an adolescent age. I quickly learned to look at life much differently than I had. Your roles change when you have a parent who is sick. You suddenly become the caregiver to them, not the other way around.
“Over the past decade, pancreatic cancer death rates have been slowly increasing among US men and women, in contrast to the downward trend in rates for most other major cancer sites, such as lung, colorectum, female breast, and prostate” (“Pancreatic Cancer, Cancer Facts”). Pancreatic Cancer can be defined as a cancer that begins in the organ lying behind the lower part of the stomach ("Pancreatic Cancer–For Patients"). Pancreatic Cancer is not getting the attention, and research it deserves. Pancreatic Cancer is the twelfth most common cancer, 40,600 people were diagnosed in 2014 and 40,000 people died from the disease in 2014 (“A Snapshot of Pancreatic”). That means the survival rate of the disease is thirteen
I have been very fortunate to have known my maternal and paternal grandparents and great-grandparents. We enjoy a close family and always have. Sadly, my first experience with a close death was when my paternal grandma died at the age of sixty-four of colon cancer. I was in the ninth grade when she died and hers’ was the first wake and funeral I had experienced. I remember having nightmares for weeks after the funeral. As I grew older, I lost my
I know she heard us but she never opened her eyes again until that last moment, she opened her eyes one last night and my grandma told my great grandma “it’s okay mama go ahead daddy’s waiting for you I love you” that was when she took her last breath. It was July 29th around 3am when my dad came in my room and told me “Haley I’m going to the hospital grandma is gone.” At first I just said okay I was in a dead sleep so I didn’t comprehend it in that exact moment. A few minutes later I got out of bed I heard my brother pull in the drive way he left work early to come home and he and I sat and looked though pictures together shedding tears and laughing and asking each other if we remembered this. We all went up my great grandma’s house where all the family gathered about an hour and a half later. Even then I was fine it wasn’t until my grandma walked in the door which is my great grandmas daughter as soon as she did she just sat in my great grandmas’ chair and stated sobbing and that’s when it hit me that she was really gone this wasn’t just some dream it was real. I could taste salt from my tears running down my face into my mouth. After that it was all a complete
As a University student now looking back on the past, all the trials and hardships, my grandmother passing was not all dreadful. In fact, this dreadful event actually opened up my eyes for me to reach my highest peak. It has taught me to be strong and proactive. In addition, it taught me that I should get all I can while I am alive and do not take anything, such as education, for granted.
It was June 6, 2011. I remember taking my mother to the County Hospital’s emergency room. She seemed extremely exhausted; her eyes were half-closed and yellow, and she placed her elbow on the armchair, resting her head on her palm. I remember it was crowded and the wait was long, so she wanted to leave. I was the only one there with her, but I did not allow her to convince me to take her home. I told her in Spanish, “Mom, let’s wait so that we can get this over with and know what’s going on with you. You’ll see everything is okay, and we’ll go home later on.” I wish then and now that would have been the case. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with colon cancer that had spread to many parts of her body including her lungs and kidneys. The doctor said to me not considering that I was a minor and my mother’s daughter, “Her disease is very advanced and we don’t think she will live longer than a year.” With this devastating news, I did not know what to do. I thought to myself that perhaps I should cry, or try to forget and take care of her as best I could and make her laugh to ease her pain.