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A Personal Experience

Nothing can be as painful as the death of a loved one. It was a chilly and cold day in September last year when my grandmother asked me to accompany her to visit my ailing grandfather in hospital. The wind was strong and the snow was falling heavily. For the previous couple of weeks, my grandfather had not been feeling very well. He was hospitalized and everyday my grandmother talked about it, the tone suggested that the disease grandfather was suffering from was incurable (Bahn 37). The situation was truly fatalist and the pain grandfather experienced was insufferable. We arrived at the hospital at two in the afternoon and proceeded to his ward. On entering the hospital, I felt weird feelings and wondered the cause of these. When I entered the room, I saw grandfather’s face but it looked unusual (Robben 51). His head had been titled on one side and the expression on his face was not only sad but also desperate.

He did not say any word to me but rather gave me an indescribable stare. Immediately, I walked up to him, kissed him and asked him how he was fairing on. When he started answering, he only stuttered (Westphal and Levenson 46). I was overwhelmed by emotion and bust into tears because I had never seen my grandfather in this horrible state. My grandmother who was standing beside me unabashed held my hand and assured me that grandfather would be fine. Despite trying her best to remain poised, the expression on grandmother’s face betrayed her. Seeing this, I walked out to find a doctor and ask him what could be done about my grandmother’s condition (Mullin 33). As I looked for the doctor, tears streamed down my cheeks uncontrollably. Emotionally, I was on the verge of collapse and I believed I could not take it any more.

When I returned to the room with the doctor, I saw grandfather breathing heavily. I just froze then yelled at the doctor to do something. Before the doctor could do anything, grandfather took his very last breath, glanced at grandmother who was holding his hand and passed on. When grandmother looked at me, I felt as if a dark cloud has just covered me (Bondeson 58). I believed we were the saddest persons on earth. The pain was unbearable; we all cried hysterically (Guignon 41). The doctors made efforts to revive him but fate had taken its toll. At that time, I felt as if my life had been torn in to two parts. We were asked to leave the room to give doctors a chance to confirm grandfather’s death.

After a short while, the doctor called us in his room and gauging by his facial expression, he situation was hopeless. I stared blankly at the conspicuous liquid in a bottle on his table when he confirmed that grandfather had passed on (Mitford 50). The events are still clear in my mind; I can never forget the grief I had because of grandfather’s death. The pain was unbearable and accepting the situation was very difficult. I was close to my grandfather and had planned on telling him about my experience in the new class. The night ended up being one the worst I have ever had throughout my life (Leming and Dickinson 61). The last words my grandfather said to me kept coming back to my mind the entire night.

Works Cited

Bahn, Pau. Written in Bones: How Human Remains Unlock the Secrets of the Dead. USA: Firefly Books, 2003. Print.

Bondeson, Jan. Buried Alive: the Terrifying History of our Most Primal Fear. W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. Print.

Guignon, Charles. The Good Life. USA: Hackett Publishing Company, 1999. Print.

Leming, Michael and Dickinson, George. Understanding Dying, Death and Bereavement. USA: Wadsworth Publishing, 2006. Print.

Mitford, Jessica. The American Way of Death Revisited. USA: Vintage, 2000. Print. 

Mullin, Glenn H. Living in the Face of Death: The Tibetan Tradition. Ithica, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 2008. Print.

Robben, Antonius. Death, Mourning and Burial: A Cross Cultural Reader. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005. Print.

Westphal, Jonathan and Levenson, Carl. Life and Death. USA: Hackett Publishing Company, 1993. Print.