My Best Friend in Heaven

Well Death will go in any family in this land

Well Death will go in every family in this land

Well he’ll come to your house and he won’t stay long

Well you’ll look in the bed and one of your family will be gone

Death will go in any family in this land

From “Death Don’t Have No Mercy” by Rev. Gary Davis

Everyone has had some kind of experience with death. Whether it be a family member, pet, etc. My experience just happened to be one of my closest friends, my great grandma. She lived with my grandma, her daughter, when she started getting old. My grandma pretty much raised me. I would always go to her house while my parents worked, and that was a quite a lot. I was really little so, to me, she was my best friend. I spent a lot of time with my grandma growing up and I cherish so many memories that I have with her.

One of my favorite things about her was her love for Reese’s. When I was little, maybe around 3 or 4 years old, my favorite candy was Reese’s, because my grandma also liked Reese’s. She would always have them in her purse or by her chair. She eventually started hiding them from us. She would hide them in her sock drawer or under her bed. When she passed, we were going through all her things and we found some in her sock drawer.

September 21, 2010, that morning I woke up and went downstairs, just like any normal morning. My dad got a phone call, and when he hung up he looked pretty upset. I asked him if he was okay and he just told me to get in the car and that we were gonna go somewhere. We went to my great uncle Roy’s house. My great grandma stayed the night there. When we got inside my grandma and all my aunts and uncles were there too. I didn’t understand why some of them were crying. Then I looked over and saw my grandma laying in the bed next to me. I got excited and and ran over to the bed. I was too young to really know what was going on and I was confused on why she was still sleeping because she usually is always up before me. I tapped her arm and told her that it was time to wake up,

“Wake up grandma… grandma, come on get up”.

I looked over to my dad. He was crying and he pulled me aside and told me that she wasn’t going to wake up. Right at that moment I understood what had happened. I have never seen my dad so upset before, so i knew that something wasn’t right. I started crying and I grabbed my dad and hugged him so tight. I never really did stop crying that day. I didn’t want to eat or do anything. I just stayed in my room all day. It took awhile for it to actually hit me, that she actually was gone and I wouldn’t be with her everyday.

It took me a while to get back to school. I finally returned going to school about a week and a half later. I didn’t want to talk to anyone and I didn’t want to do any schoolwork. People kept asking what was wrong and why I wasn’t at school but it only reminded me that she was actually gone. I remember sitting in Mrs. Dimmerling’s class and the only thing I could think about was my grandma. I put my head down and started crying.

At her funeral, I remember being scared. I was afraid to go up to her casket. I knew that they have people to make her look good for her funeral, and I was afraid that my last look at her would look and feel so different. Eventually my grandma and I went together. When we got up there, I noticed she looked a little different but it was still her. The way she was laying made her seem so peaceful, and I loved that. At this moment I finally realized that she was at peace now. There were no more breathing machines, no more struggling to get out of her chair, all of that was now gone. She is now running around with my great grandpa and the rest of her family in heaven but I know she remembers us and watches down on me everyday.

After her funeral, I was still upset but I kept my head up and tried to stay positive about it. When I went back to school, I told the people that I ignored when they asked where I was that my grandma had passed and that I was having a hard time with it and that I was sorry for ignoring them. I still spent a lot of time with my grandma and it was a little different without my great grandma. We all had a hard time with this. She was everyone’s grandma, not just in my family.

I still think about her everyday. I have a picture of her above my bed with a little note in her hand writing, saying “Always remember, grandma loves you more”. She used to always say that. It was what she would say to me everytime I left her house. She never failed to make me smile. I never got to say goodbye. It just happened out of the blue. She was 93 years old. She lived a good life and I know that. I am so lucky that I was able to have her in my life when I did. Even though I never got to say goodbye, I wouldn’t know what to say even if I did. I feel like it would have been a lot harder on me if I knew that she wasn’t doing good. I wouldn’t of wanted her to go any other way. She went so peacefully and she deserved that. I will never forget who she was and how she affected my life the way she did.