Cecilee's English Paper About Grandpa

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Cecilee Horlacher

Mrs. Wilson

18 September 2013

Intro to Writing: Personal Narrative

My Grandpa, Clayton Ah Quin Sr.

            We had scares before, in a sense we knew it was going to happen and time was winding down. But, we as a family never thought today was the day. My mom never thought, today is the day that I will loose my dad. I never thought today is the last time I will hear my grandpa scream, “GO CECILINA” in the stands at my soccer game.

We knew it would happen, it’s a part of life, its part of living, but it doesn’t hit you until you are standing there watching someone you love die.

            My grandpa was simply amazing. He was an incredible yet, humble athlete. He had a beautiful, outgoing wife/queen.

He had seven beautiful children. Along with those children came grandchildren, all 27 of them. My grandpa had a legacy. My grandpa still has a legacy.

            It all hit me on September 2, 2013, my birthday, that my grandpa was really sick. He stopped acting like himself. He was in pain constantly, and his contagious smile that he always had was no longer able to show through all the pain he was in. On my birthday we decided to go visit him in the Acute Rehabilitation, that’s honestly the best place we could have been on my birthday, serving my grandpa. He needed us more that day then I think any other.

 

            As a week went by, my grandpa was in too much pain to function. We took him to the hospital and there the doctors told us, there was nothing more they could do for him. They told us that he had congestive heart failure, and that his kidneys were shutting down, and eventually he would suffocate to death. We had a family meeting and there we decided that we were going to take my grandpa home. We were going to make him as comfortable as possible. Right before we were going to take him home, my grandpa muttered, “Families are forever”.

            My uncle at that time said, “Dad, what did you say?”

            My grandpa then said, “Nobody left behind.”

            This meant everything to my family. This meant that we all needed to do our best in this life; that we all need to strive so that we can live with our Heavenly Father and grandpa again and endure to the end.

            We took my grandpa to my aunt’s home, where we made him as comfortable as we could. There we had all the family around him, sharing memories, testimonies, spiritual talks, etc. My grandpa at this time was incoherent and was unable to communicate with us verbally. He was able to squeeze our hand when we asked him questions, we considered the hand squeezing as a “Yes” or something he was proud of.

            The day of September 10, 2013, was the day my grandpa passed. He passed at 12:32 am. My grandma was by his side the whole time. Right before he took his last breath he opened his eyes. My grandma stood up and said, “Clay, I love you honey”. The look my grandpa gave my grandma was pure love for her. She continued to say, “ Babe, go….I’ll be okay. The kids will look after me. Go see your mom and dad. Go see my mom and dad and Tierra, and let them know that we love them. I love you Clay.” As my grandma said I love you for the last time he took a deep breath, closed his eyes and passed away.

            My grandpa definitely changed my life. I know he changed a lot of people’s lives. As I look back on this past year and the time I got to spend with him, I know that he loved me. I got to just go and hang out with him and my grandma in the rehab. I would take my grandpa shaved ice from the snow shack that is in the Smith’s parking lot on Bluff Street.

He would tell me that me coming with his shaved ice every night continues to be the highlight of his day. That he works so hard in rehab so that he will enjoy his shaved ice. I remember sitting there listening to his stories of him growing up in Hawaii, his high school stories, he and my grandma’s love story, all while I would massage his feet with lotion. I look back at those memories and I am so grateful for those wonderful experiences I had with him and all the stories that I am now able to carry with me to my children.

            The day of his viewing was a beautiful day. All of his kids and grandchildren were there watching as there was a line out the door waiting to pay there condolences to my grandma and grandpa. It got me thinking, “If I were to pass, would I have touched this many peoples lives?” It was an eye opener to me that I need to carry that pure light of Christ with me at all times. I need to be kind to everyone, I need to serve others and to have charity as my grandpa did.

            I’m sitting there next to my four-year-old cousin at the viewing. He turns to me and asks, “Cec, why is grandpa in a box?”

            I looked at him with love in my heart and I said, “Maj, all of grandpa’s friends are saying goodbye to him. Grandpa went to go live with Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father again. But don’t worry Maj, we’ll be able to see grandpa again.” As I was telling Major all of this my eyes were filling with tears. Its one thing to say you believe that, there is life after death, and that you will be able to see them again and live with them again, but its another when you have to actually walk the walk and truly believe everything you have been taught and everything you have said you believed to be true.

            Sitting there at my grandpa’s funeral and seeing how packed it was, I couldn’t help but think to myself, “Dang, my grandpa was amazing. My grandpa made an impact on all these peoples lives.” As I visited with many of the people that came to pay their respects to my grandpa and my family, I started realizing how far these people traveled to be here to say their goodbyes. We had friends and family come from, Hawaii, California, Nevada, Idaho, Texas, Northern Utah, Samoa, etc. My grandpa not only made a huge difference in my life but also many others through out his lifetime.

            The death of a love one is hard. Especially when you take into consideration my grandpa was only 63 years old, almost 64. He still had at least 20 more years of life to live.

  

He was young. But through all this I have come to true knowledge that everything happens for a reason. It was his time to leave this earth and return to heaven. It’s hard to accept because we all feel like we need him here. That he needs to be here to experience more with his family, wife, kids and grandkids, but it’s the bigger picture we need to have in mind.

            One experience that I remember most vividly is one Sunday evening after we went to church and had family dinner; my mom suggested we go visit my grandpa. That day he needed cheering up and he needed to be surrounded by love and by people who love and care about him. We stayed for a couple of hours until it was time for him to go to bed, and then we started with our goodbyes. I was wearing a Dixie State University Women’s Soccer jacket and he said, “Cecilina, you play at Dixie?” He already knew I did, but with all the sickness and pain he didn’t remember. I replied, “Yeah grandpa! I do play at Dixie!” My grandpa looked at me with sadness in his eyes and said, “I wish I could be there for your games again like I used to be.” I looked at him with a big smile on my face and told him, “Grandpa I’m playing at Dixie for the next few years so hurry and get better so I can look up in the stands and hear you yell “GO CECILINA” He had a huge smile on his face and said, “I will Cecilina, I will.” Now that he has passed I know that he is at every single one of my soccer games looking after me and cheering as loud as he can, “GO CECILINA!” 

            My grandpa’s death opened my eyes to what life is really about. It’s not about how wealthy you are, or your status in this life. This life is about learning, building relationships that will last a lifetime and about living life to the fullest. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of my grandpa and the example and the teaching he taught our whole family. There is definitely a void in our family without him, but we now have a guardian angel looking after us as we live our life so that we can see him and live with him again.