VanessaAnguiano

10thGradeHumanities
Dr.AlecPatton
December1st,2015

AnunexpectedJourney
My grandpa was a hardworkingman.HealwaysdreamedofgoingtoCancnbut postponedhis
vacations because according to him work was more important. You may be asking yourself
whereis thisgoing?Well,thisisthestoryofmygrandfather,hisdiseaseandhowitchangedmy
life. It all started when I was in first grade. My grandparents lived in Colima,Mexico, only two
hours drive from my familys home in Manzanillo, so every weekend we would go overtotheir
house and stay there I would play with my sister, and our babysitter Coque.Wewouldpretend
that the playground in the backyard was Hogwarts I was Ginny Weasley, my sister was
Hermione, and CoquewasMinervaMcGonagall.MyGrandmawouldalwaysmakeuscupcakes
or cookies so when we got there every weekend shecouldsitwithusin themorningswatching
cartoons while eating whatever pastry she had made. I really loved that house: there was
somethingtoitthatwasveryelegantandmysterious.

Gradually I started noticing some changes in my grandpa: he never wanted toplay dominosor
cards anymore with me and my sister or push our swings in the playground. He also didnteat
as much anymore and when he did he wouldchokehesaiditfeltlikehejustcouldnswallow
his food anymore. This was causing him to lose weight rapidly. My grandmother took him to
manydoctorsbutnodoctororspecialistwasabletodeterminewhathisproblemwas.

My grandparents decided they weren't going to let more time pass since my grandpa was
gettingworse.TheywenttoGuadalajara,whereadoctortoldmygrandpahehada raredisease
called amyloidosis. The doctor saidThisdiseaseislikewinningthe lottery, onlyoneinamillion
get it. My grandparents were told it could be treated but not cured. Sadly, the doctors in
Guadalajara didn't haveallthemedicinesrequiredtotreat hisrarediseasebecausethedisease
hadstartedtodevelop34yearsbefore

To get the medicine my grandpa needed, my grandparents moved to San Diego. When they
arrived, the doctors here told my grandpa that his disease could be controlled but that he was
only gonna live for 6 months. Four years passed and my family and me rarely heard from my
grandparents. All my grandma would say was that they were fine that the disease was under
control. Everything changed in2010:mygrandpas diseasehad spreadto hisheartandkidneys
and my grandma told my dad that she couldnt take care of himanymore.Shetoldmydadshe
neededhimwithher,sowemovedtoTijuana.


The first thing I thought about our house in Tijuana wasthatitlookedlikeagingerbreadhouse,
but in the inside it felt cold and empty. We would barely go out and when we did it was only
while the sun was out: that stereotype of Tijuana being so dangerous was jammed into our
heads. I remember my mom looking at the window whenever we heard noises outside, even
thoughourneighborhoodwasnice.Shesaidthatbeingina niceneighborhoodgaveusahigher
chance of getting robbed.IremembermybrothercryingwheneverwecamehomeandsayingI
dont want to go back to housejail! Meanwhile, my dad didnt live with us anymore. He was
taking care of my grandpa, so he could only visit onweekends. We livedinTijuana,withoutmy
dad, for two years while the process of naturalization in the US was completedformeand my
siblings.

I had never been to the United Statesbeforesincethepeopleattheembassysaidtheywerent

going to give meandmysiblingsaU.S.Visabecausewe hadtherighttobecomeU.S.citizens
instead but my parents never took that as an option until they had no other choice. I moved to
san diego (to southwest Chula Vista to be precise) My dads house was big although I had to
share a room with my sister because my grandma and grandpa sleptondifferentrooms.Other
than that I liked my house it was biganditfeltlikehomesincethefirstday.Seeingmygrandpa
after so long was really heartbreaking: he looked nothing like I remembered him. He was in a
wheelchair, he had lost a lot of weight,hehadgottensurgerytogetaPEGtubeplacedthrough
the abdominal wall and into the stomach in order to allow nutritive fluid go directly into the
stomach becausehis digestivetractwasntworkinganymoresothePEGtubestoppedhimfrom
gettingweakerandkepthimhealthy.

I remember everything was goingwellatfirstuntilIstartedgoingtoCastleparkmiddle,myfirst

day there was horrible, the school itself was horrible. I was taught that you should never judge
someone by their looks but in castle park that was impossible, everyone looked tough, they all
had pierced ears and even though we had uniform they still looked tough. The guys woretheir
pants way under than where youre supposed to wear them. It was intimidating to me, the
restrooms smelled like weed everyday andtherewerealwaysusedcondomsonthe grassfield.
I remember walking into my regular english class, everything seemed welcoming until I spoke
and everyone started telling me about my accent, so I told myself I was never gonnaspeak in
class again unless I was told to. I remember once Mrs. Heredia yelled at me for not being
capable of leaving my insecurities behind and speaking more in class, She said SPEAK UP
GIRL Iimmediatelyfreakedoutandfeltembarrassedandashamedofmyself, andthefollowing
days didnt get any better. You know that girl you see in the movies crying in the restroom
because she misses her old friends and life and because she has no friends now? well I was
that girl. IrememberIwouldcryeverydayinthemorningsandIwouldbegmymomtoletmego
back to Tijuana, but all she would say is Youll thank me later ma and I would cry harder
becausethatmeantIhadtostayhereandacceptmynewlife.

One day I was standing clueless in lunch because I didnt know where to go and thisreallytall
girl came up to me and said Hey youre the girl from p.e, you wanna hang out withme?and

well of course I said yes how could I say no if I had no friends? She was surprisingly really
sweet and nice and lived a block away from my house, a week later she introduced me to
Reyna Gabriel, she was really nice at first too but the more comfortable she got with me the
more disrespectful she was and I tried to play it cool but sometimes the things she said really
got to me, herandpriscilla wouldsomehow teamupandfind awaytobring medowneveryday,
they would always criticizeme.Iwastryingso hardforReynatolikeme,thatI didnt realizeshe
wasnt a true friend, real friends criticize people together they dont criticize each other, they
dont put you down for how you dress or the way you look. Priscilla was really different when
she wasnt with her, she was herself around me and she understood how I felt because of
Reyna, but she never stopped teaming up with her. Since me and Priscilla lived really close to
each other we would walk home after school together and thats when I felt that I had a real
friend.

I remember cominghomeandseeingmygrandpa inhiswheelchairwaitingformeattheporch,

I would say hi to him kindly hug him and go inside. I would rarely spend time with him and
whenever he called me uptohisroomtotalktomeIwouldgobutoncehestartedtalkingtome
I would make up anexcusetogo.Ineverreallylistenedtohimortried tounderstandhim,never
appreciated his many stories or the fact that it was basically a miraclethathe wasstillthere.In
spring break of thatyearmygrandpaalreadyfeltlikehistimetogowasclosesohetoldmydad
he wanted to go back to Colimaonelasttime,somyparentstalkedtohisdoctorandthedoctor
said he was stable however travelling by airplane can sometimes cause side effects in people
so it was better to travel by car. It was a three day drive in our motorhome, but my grandpas
facewhenwearrivedtherewaspriceless,wespentaweekthereandI hadneverseenhimlook
so happy before, he never complained about anythingwhenheusuallydidbecausesometimes
his medications werent strong enough to make his pain go away but this time he didnt. After
we cameback monthspassedandnothingreallychangedexceptthefactthatIhadstraightAs,
reyna and priscilla remained the same throughout most of the 7th grade yearbutthreemonths
before the year was over reyna started hanging out with Valeria Rodriguez which was also in
Mrs. Heredias class, and thankstothatIgotsomestressandweightoffmyshouldersI stopped
feelinglikebeingmyselfwaswrong.

My grandpas health was still the same, sometimes he would try to get up off hiswheelchairto
go to the restroom at night by himself, He didnt want to wake my grandma or parents up, he
would fall because his legs didnt have strength in them, so mymomalwaysendedupgoingto
help him, she would ask him Don Lalo why did you get up? and he would tell her crying he
was dreaming of himself running or that he feltstrengthonhislegs,orIrememberonceIcame
home after school and I didnt see him waiting for me so I went to see him to his room and he
wasasleepbitinghishand,soIwokehimupandhetoldmehewasdreamingofeatingaturkey
leg, it must have been horrible to smell my moms food everyday and not being able to try it a
little bit, he had always been an independent man but now he hadto beundersomeonescare
24/7 and he hated that. My grandma never took care of himanymoreshewasalwaystoobusy
going out with her sister to Las Vegas or anyCasinoclosetoourhouse.I feltlikeshesawhim
asahindranceandIfeellikeheknewshefeltthatwaytoo.


Eighth grade was slightly different, my grandpa had to go to the doctor more than usual,
sometimes he would have to stay there for a week or more due to his heart, It had and
abnormal heart rhythm so he had to get and Artificial Cardiac Pacemaker. His disease was
causing him so much pain his medications werent enough for it, we talked to his doctor and
they agreed that itwasnecessarytogivehimastrongermedication.Theyput himonmorphine,
then the hallucinations began and it was getting too out of control. Sadly my grandpa passed
away when me and my family were outonspringbreak atpuertoVallarta.Eventhoughhehad
a pacemaker his heart and lungscollapsed,mydadcamebackfrompuertoVallarta,butIdidnt
until spring break was over maybe thats why it still hurts to remember him, because maybe a
part of mestillcantbelieveithappened.Afterallwedidtoextendhislifeforaslongaspossible
and how drastically our life changed, I have to say Imgladitdid.Ittaughtmetoappreciatethe
little things people do for you and to never miss an opportunity to tell the people you love how
youfeelaboutthem.