Ground hog day Re-Do

On September 29th, 2004, I lost someone that was very close to me. I was nine years old and my great grandpa had always been there for me. My dad wasn’t around much and so he became like a second father to me. He was my best friend and in all honesty, my only friend. He had been in the hospital for a while. He didn’t have cancer or any type of disease he was just getting older. The night before he died I had, had a dream that something bad was going to happen the next day. I was only nine so the dream didn’t stick out to me much right then. I had school that day and I didn’t want to miss because I had a couple of tests that I didn’t want to have to make up later; I was currently attending Trinity Lutheran in Freistatt. Not going ahead and missing that day was where I went wrong. Around 1 o’clock I get a call to go straight to the office and to hurry. When I get there my mom is standing there crying saying, “Whit hurry up we have to go now.” I waited to ask any questions because I knew something was really wrong. When we were almost to the interstate I asked my mom what was wrong. She said he’s not going to live much longer. She was trying to get me there to say goodbye before he passed away. I have never seen my mom drive that fast in my entire life, even to this day. When we got to Springfield and arrived to the hospital we ran inside. As soon as the elevator doors opened my grandma came running down the hallway….She said he was gone.

 To this day I have never had a feeling that gut wrenching. I dropped to my knees and couldn’t blink, think, react, or even cry. When I finally regained myself, I slowly moved towards his room. What I saw was beyond description because the man in that bed wasn’t my life loving grandpa. If I could go back and change that day I would’ve never went to school. Those tests did not matter to me as much as saying goodbye to my grandpa did. That morning I wish I would’ve woken up and told my mom I want to go see him. She wouldn’t have hesitated to take me, not for one second, because she knew how close we were. I could have gone to the hospital and spent the last few hours with him.  Whether we just talked, played card games, or told jokes like we always had before, anything would have been better than nothing. My grandma said that before he closed his eyes he hugged her and said give this to Whitney. He smiled and went to heaven. That is the day I would change though. I wish I could have been there to receive that hug from him.  Although, this is sad and something a lot of people might change, this is the biggest thing that I wish I could go back and change.