Part one
WHAT LIFE NEVER TOLD US
As days ran into weeks, and weeks into months, I had come to make the hospital walls my home and it’s fluffy bed my only comfort. I’d wrap myself tight enough in Grandpa’s weak bonny arms, watching him try so hard to hide his pain behind a hopeful grin.
Grandpa had been bedridden by an illness whose name and cause i knew nothing about.
Just as mom would always ground me from TV, family games and other childly indulgences when i faulted; grandpa was now grounded by life itself,deprived from living out his passing days. You could see how pale and pained he looked each time he made great efforts to move his arms just to embrace me.
You could almost touch his suffering. It was palpable. But he always manages to put a grin on his tired ,vein-happy face.
I’d never loved any skin like i loved grandpa’s. He had gray hair all over his wrinkled aged hands.
It was fascinating to see how the human body could change its form in a matter of years.
Grandpa was like a dad to me, actually he was my dad.
After i lost My Dad, Grandpa had filled in the space so perfectly, that i seldomly remembered i once lost a father.
You could say we were like bread and butter, complimenting each other’s mak.
But there was something different about the look etched on Grandpa’s disposition today. Though he’d tried to hide it but i noticed he became quite tensed after speaking to the doctor. Mom couldn’t help herself either. The angst was written all over her.
I was almost certain it had everything to do with their conversation earlier in the day.
“May, how in the world are we going to raise such an amount on such short notice? Uncle Michael asked , pacing through the room,with hands over his head,his lower voice trying so hard to stifle the dilemma he was in. “I don’t know! We’re already in so much debt, I doubt that anyone would want to lend us anymore “…I heard mom reply,
” I can’t tell what to do, I just know I can’t let Dad die! .. I-ca-n’t lose Dad…. Not now.. Michael…. Not now..”
Mom continued , heavy sobs shaking her form and her climaxing emotions finally betraying her as she burst into involuntary tears .
“.
“May you’ve got to be strong , we’ve got two days! and so we need all the help and strength to save dad” uncle Michael said, pating mom on the back a couple of times, enough to help abate her tears, then taking his leave.
“I thought it’s said that good things always happen to good people. Grandpa is good, so why does he have to die?”
I asked in tears, pulling myself gently from grandpa’s arm.
Though the room was dark, i could still sense mom was in utter shock..
“you’re Awake! Come here son…. She said beckoning me into her widely stretched out arm .
“Who told you, Grandpa would leave us? ..
She said, forcing an oxymoronic grin on her tears ,and trying so hard to stifle her pain as she made me sit on her laps.
“That’s what the doctor said right? I insisted, looking at her wet eye balls.
“No Dear! The doctor said your/Grandpa needs an immediate …. treatment. … grandpa wouldn’t leave us… Now alright?
Momma said,almost stammering and staring sternly at me.
I knew behind that strong look,hid worst her fears.
“Right now, Grandpa needs our prayers”
Mom added, caressing the hairs ony head in the motherly manner of putting a child to sleep. But How could i sleep?
I was no longer the five year old child that saw his dad being shot dead right before his very eyes and could do nothing, but stood in shock.
Oh no I wasn’t!
I was 11 now!
Bigger, and stronger to defend my family. Or so I thought,with the innocent resoluteness of a child.
All I knew was, Grandpa was going no where!
Not heaven, not hell!
“Prayers!..
That word stucked suddenly in my heart. It was the only thing I could do
“Pray!”..”pray?”.. I remembered I had prayed that God would bring dad back, but dad didn’t come back. God didn’t listen then,it seemed..
“why would he listen to me now?
It was 3 hours already , I could see the night abdicating for the day. It now dawned on me. I had stayed up all night.
It was a new dawn! and I was exploding into a tsunami of anger and determination to fight and save this precious life before my eyes, resting soundly.
My Grandpa, my Strength.
Today I have resolved in my heart that I would no longer wait for life to give Grandpa the good things he deserved, but rather, I’d take them to him.
One would wonder what an eleven year old boy could possibly to do save his grandfather, that everyone else couldn’t….
(story continues to the next “what never told us 2) will be posted soon. Please follow the page with your email details to get more updates.
The world in our minds 