My Grandmother

I was supposed to be on the road to visit my grandma's grave 30 minutes ago, but of course, we wouldn't be Filipinos if we didn't run on Filipino time.

I have not visited my grandma in a very long time, and today marks her 4th death anniversary.

She is one of the most amazing people I know, and I wish I knew more about her before she died...It is only then when she died did people tell stories of her that I never heard before, and what she's done for other people.

She took care of me and my sisters when my mom started working, and she was such a caring loving person. And she always bought us chocolate, goodies, toys, or something good, every time she went out...grandparents love to spoil :)

She died from a brain aneurysm. It was a total shock when we just suddenly had to take her to the hospital one day. We all thought she would be back that day, because she was feeling so fine before this happened. None of us expected that she would not be coming home, and that she would be in the hospital the whole three months of summer.

It was a weird summer. I was going into my junior year, and I had a lot of AP homework, especially from AP Chemistry. Not knowing how to deal with my feelings, I kept myself busy in doing homework. I remember the next day after her first day in the hospital, we learned that she wasn't coming home any time soon. I suddenly kept myself busy with my AP Lit homework. I don't think anyone in my family knew how to deal with it. We're not the type of family to be hugging and giving each other emotional support. So we all deal with it our own way, and it feels like my parents, my sisters, and I didn't see each other a whole lot that summer, though we were together all the time in car rides and the hospital.

In the hospital, since we were in the waiting room for most of the day, I did all of my AP Chem hw. When my friends called me, they were surprised how much I had done already.

I wish my grandma saw me at least graduate from high school. Because after my junior year, I realized that I really liked chemistry, and that's when my mom started telling me that she was a chem major and ranked at the top of her class, a pharmacist in the Philippines, and worked in Canada at a pharmaceutical company. I wish she knew how much I liked chem after that year, and that I'm a chem major now.

We almost settled in Canada instead of the U.S., but she had reasons why she gave up her work there. I'm not going into the details of why she didn't continue, but it makes me admire her more.

I will remember her always.