The Long Way Home

Walking to school, a little girl named Cynthia was filled with excitement thinking about
seeing her grandma. It was Friday and could’ve been described as the perfect day, with the sun
kissing Cynthia’s skin. Although she loved school, Cynthia was counting down the minutes until
class was out. After recess, it was time to get back to learning; meaning school was almost out,
Finally, the bell rang and school was out and Cynthia started on her journey home from
school excited to see her grandma.
As she walked through the green grass taking in a breath of the fresh air mixed with
freshly cut grass she thought of all the things she was gonna do with her grandma. After she
finally got over the hill she saw the one thing she had been looking for, the little golden,
glistening Camry parked in her driveway and she started running to get home.
Cynthia barged in her front door; getting hit with the amazing smells of warm apple pie.
Filled with a warm feeling inside she ran into her grandma's arms and gave her the biggest bear
hug she could considering they were the same size and she didn’t want to smash her. “Oh, Mi
Hita you’re gonna break me but, would you like some food?” to which Cynthia replied, “Sorry
grandma I didn’t mean to hurt you and of course I would love some food.” The pair spent the rest
of the day talking about their day, “ Grandma today was such a good day in school, I got
nominated for student of the week and I passed all my tests.”
“That’s good Mi Hita, you are such a smart girl.”
Cynthia and her grandma were very close and she spoke to her grandma every day and
saw her every week after school on Fridays and talked to her on the phone for the rest of the
week. They had the type of relationship that no one could break; they were best friends.
One day Cynthia was out clothes shopping with her Mom going from store to store with a
big smile on her face. It seemed like a normal day but that all changed with a phone call.
Cynthia’s phone started ringing where she learned her grandmother had fallen. Cynthia and her
mom jumped in the car, speeding down the road to get to the house. They both were filled with
fear and anxiety. Every possible horrible thing was going through their heads about what could
be wrong. In each of their heads, they thought “What if she hit her head?” “Is she okay?” “How
did she even fall” Not a single word was said in that car. It was so silent that you would’ve been
able to hear a pin drop. When they reached her grandma, Cynthia called 911. Cynthia stayed
strong and didn’t let anyone see how scared she was.
From this point on it seemed like everything was going so fast with her grandma but
Cynthia was stuck in slow motion unable to fully process what was going on. One minute they
were in a hospital being told that her grandma had a stroke, next she was being told that her
grandma was getting worse and they needed to take her to a different hospital. Cynthia felt guilty
that if she wouldn’t have gone shopping they could’ve gotten to her grandma sooner. When they
got to the second hospital her grandma could no longer speak right so there were some
challenges.
As soon as Cynthia walked into the hospital room her grandma greeted her, “ Hi Cynthia
how are you doing.”Cynthia responded, “ Hi grandma, I'm doing okay, you look pretty today.” to
which grandma replied, “ that's not true, I look like a mess.” One of the challenges was when her
grandmother’s stroke got worse whenever she would speak she would put an N in front of
names. This left Cynthia feeling heartbroken and like her world was falling apart. Cynthia saw
her aunts and uncle turn against each other like cats and dogs in the time that should’ve brought
them closer. In between people going crazy her grandma had to be taken to another hospital.
After a few weeks in hospitals, Cynthia's grandma was coming home because there was
nothing else they could do to help. So for the next little while, Cynthia would go to school hurry,
and do all her homework in class so when she rushed home she could go straight to her
grandma’s house. Her grandma greeted her right away, “ Hi, Mi Hita what are you doing here?”
“ Oh, I thought I would come and see you and bring you some food if that’s okay.” It
was hard for her to see her grandma crying because she was in so much pain that Cynthia
would’ve done anything to take the pain away. But it all ended within a few weeks and her
grandma had passed away. As hard as it was, she knew her grandma wasn’t in pain anymore and
that made her happy.
Cynthia was no longer excited about Fridays and she was no longer able to see the
golden, glistening car parked in her driveway. She avoided going over the hill that once
symbolized happiness to her now just represented her grandma’s death. Cynthia is the type of
person who shuts out emotions and doesn’t let anyone know what is going on inside her head.
She had struggled with moving on and how to go through life without her grandma but she
played it off. At the same time of losing her grandma, she also had to deal with losing her
family. After the death, Cynthia no longer spoke with her aunt and uncle because of how horrible
they were. Although Cynthia felt heartbroken as if her heart had just been ripped out of her chest,
she knew that she had to be strong and instead, thought about her good memories with her
grandma. She used the thought of her grandma to push through school and to become a better
person.
Six years have passed since the moment that changed Cynthia’s life. Cynthia was back to
being the happy girl that she used to be and she accepted her loss. She still wasn’t speaking with
her family after so much time. One day Cynthia was going through some boxes and some
pictures fell out of a box. As she picked up the pictures, seeing their content she took a big breath
and smiled. What had fallen was pictures of her grandma smiling ear to ear, and for the first time
since her death, Cynthia was able to look at pictures smiling and feel at peace again. It was the
same warm feeling as being in a house full of freshly baked apple pie.