Midcap 1 MaKenzi Midcap Brian Harrell English Comp. 1 25 September 2013 This Is My Girl This is my girl.

Those were the last words that I heard before my entire life changed forever. It all started in June of 2007. Im going into my very first year of middle school: starting a new school, trying new sports, and becoming a teenager. It is also the month of the first major surgery for my great-grandpa. Im a little worried, but not too much because its just a routine surgery that people have every single day and Pa is healthier than most 82-year-old men, so I know that everything is going to be ok. He recovered well from the surgery but has to go back a month from now for a routine checkup. The doctor told Granny that Pa should be fine, but if he experienced any stomach pain then she needed to take him to the emergency room immediately. Well the stomach pain came and she rushed him to the hospital. This was the beginning of a very long and painful summer. The next day, Im home alone because its summer vacation and I dont have any volleyball open gym today so I relax and do some chores. Mom has a full day of work ahead of her so Im not expecting her home until at least 3. She calls me at 11am and says that I need to get ready because she will be home to pick me up in 10 minutes. She didnt tell me where we were going, why she left work, or what was wrong, she just said, Be ready! When she pulls into the driveway I go outside and get into the car where the first

Midcap 2 thing I ask is, Whats the matter? Her response is completely unexpected and jaw dropping. They dont think Pa is going to make it. The 20-minute car ride feels like hours and even though neither mom nor I say anything I feel like the stereo was blaring because so many things are screaming in my head. We finally get there and I follow Mom to the waiting room where most of my family is. I sit down in a chair and am hearing a thousand voices tell me what is going on. I cant hear anything! All I can think is my father figure, my best friend, my biggest fan might be ripped out of my life at any moment. I start crying hysterically because I just cant grasp the thought of losing him. I have never lost a loved one who I am so close to and I dont know how to deal with it. My mind instantly goes back to one of my favorite memories with you. Okay now Spuds are you coming to the park with me to make sure everything is running smoothly? you asked. Remember when you would take me to the trailer park all the time, then take me and get a Superman ice-cream with the face on it at Pavs? Yeah Ill go with you, Pa. I reply. We drove down in that big maroon-colored Astro-Van. The one you locked me in when I fell asleep and you didnt want to wake me up. I jump out and run to the small lake on the edge of the park. I liked to watch the fish swim up to the side, while you went to check in on a couple residents. I wandered around the lake following the fish as they swam around, then I came across something. Pa, come quick, come quick! I shouted enthusiastically. You ran over to my side, probably wondering what the heck was the matter, What, whats wrong? you asked. SHHHH! Look what I found! I reply as I pointed down to a patch of mud where a huge frog was sitting. You gave me the biggest grin and went to the van to get something. The you walk back with a

Midcap 3 big, white bucket with a lid on top and say, Were gonna catch him and take him home to show Granny. I was so excited and watched as you reached down and quickly snatched up the frog. When we got home, I ran inside screaming, Granny! Granny! Look what Pa caught for us! At that moment you walk in with the bucket, set it down on the counter, and took off the lid was when complete chaos broke loose. The frog immediately jumped out of the bucket and began hopping all over the kitchen. I was sitting in the chair screaming my head off almost in tears and Granny was yelling at Pa, Get it Gale! Take it outside! Hours pass and Im still sitting in the same chair in the waiting room not being able to contain my emotions. Every time a member of my family comes back from seeing him all they say is, He wants to see you, but I just cant go back. They tell me that I cant cry when I go back or he would get really upset. All that Pa was concerned about was getting home and picking the potatoes out of the garden before they went bad. He was stubborn and when people had bad news he didnt want to listen. Granny sits down and wraps her arms around me, All he wants is to see you, I will go in with you and we will be okay. Hes going to be okay. she assures me. At that point I know I have to do it. I feel paralyzed in my chair but I pulled myself together, got up, and walked back to his room. The nurse is there checking all of his vitals and giving him medication but I still go in. He looks right at me and instantly takes my hand and squeezed it as hard as he can. That moment I pray that he will never let go. Theres my girl, he says. He looks at the nurse and says, This is my girl. Three weeks go by and his health slowly deteriorates. First its the ventilator, then his kidneys begin failing so he has dialysis every day, after that he becomes jaundice, and

Midcap 4 then his stomach begins filling up with fluid. The hardest part of watching the one and only man in my life slowly leave my world is knowing that he is still here. Its hard to imagine your life without someone when they are right there in front of you. He would have his good days every once in a blue moon but the days that filled those weeks were mostly bad. There was not a day that went by where I didnt make it to the hospital to see him or talk to him and tell him about volleyball or softball. Even though he couldnt respond, I knew that he was listening. These were the moments where I told him how much he meant to me and how thankful I was for him. It was comforting for me because I got to tell him all of those things and I knew he heard them. On 15 August 2007 the doctors of Barberton Hospital gave my family the worst news that we would ever need to hear. He can only be kept on the ventilator for three weeks and hes coming close to meeting his deadline. How do you respond to that? His brain and heart were still fine. He was there and he hadnt given up, and we didnt give up on him. My family knew that no matter how bad things got they would always get better. Pa taught us that and proved that to us everyday of his life. He was our rock and the glue that held our family together. Granny and Pa were the sole reason that my entire family, immediate and distant, was so close. Ultimately, the final decision came down to Granny, his wife of 61 years and his one true love. On 16 August 2007 at 10:30am the ventilator was shut off. My whole family was there waiting, probably around 30 people crammed into this little room to watch his last breaths. The doctors thought he couldnt breathe on his own for more than 15 minutes, but Pas stubbornness proved otherwise. At 7:44 pm on the night of 16 August, Pa took his very last breath.

Midcap 5 At his calling hours, close to 300 people came through the doors to see him. People from his hometown in West Virginia, people that he worked with at Goodyear, and people that he had only met once but thats the kind of impression he left with people. It was at his calling hours where I found out that my Granny and Pa only knew each other 2 weeks before getting married. He told her that he was only marrying her to get credits to get out of the war faster. He still told her that 61 years later. The love that the two of them had was inspiring, hilarious, and magical. I feel like his funeral was where I found my closure. Several members of my family came up to me and said, You were like a daughter to him, you werent just his great-granddaughter. Those words are what made me realize how close Pa and I were. We had memories that a father and daughter have throughout the course of a lifetime. I think thats why I had such a hard time after his death, not because I lost my Pa, but because I lost my father. Its been 6 years now, but I still relive 16 August like it just happened yesterday. I still drive past Barberton Hospital and see the chord hanging down the window of your room. I still visit you at Greenlawn Cemetery and laugh when I think about mom sinking in the mud the day after we left you there, thinking you were pulling her down with you. When I turned 18 this year I put those three little words on my wrist, I love you. I wish I could hear you say that one more time. I wish I realized how close we were before you were gone. I wish I told you how much you meant to me. I wish that I had thanked you for showing me that father-daughter relationship that I will never have again, but will forever remember the memories you created for me. I wish that when you said, This is my girl to me that day that I held on tighter and said, This is my dad.

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