The Bare Necessities

They Didn't Like to be Called That

My grandfather was in a wheelchair when I met him.
He only had one leg.
Diabetes took the other.
He used to bounce me on the only good knee he had.
I would look into his giant cuticular wire framed glasses and his eyes would be ginormous.
And he would smile.
Doctors said he was crippled.
He didn't like to be called that,
Crippled.
Despite him missing a few inches when he didn't stand he still threw parties and invited friends and family to share in his limited time called life.
The day my grandfather died was two years after my mother had.
She had cancer, breast cancer.
Doctors said she was sick.
She didn't like to be called that,
Sick.
Despite this she climbed the Great Wall of China in the height of her chemotherapy.
She pushed through the pain, the handkerchiefs on her head. And the wigs that made the hot sun beat down on her harder.
She did it for a baby girl.
The flight back to America was a new life for the DiMeo's.
The tumors had spread to her vital organs.
She left a journal for me of her adventure to china.
Her last lines were "my heart kept beating faster I couldn't wait to see you, the elevator doors opened..."
and that was it.
After that she couldn't put her new baby girl down.
Showering her with love with the limited amount of time she called life.

And what an elevator ride it is.
Just two directions, up and down where the drops made me nauseous and the lifts made my ears pop and I felt the altitude levels rise.
The air gets thinner the higher you go.
Maybe I'll go so high I'll reach heaven.
...
It's been 6 years since a good friend of mine committed suicide.
Doctors said she was depressed.
She didn't like to be called that,
Depressed
She didn't like the amount of blue happy pills they prescribed her.
Of the amount of visits to a room were a really nice lady asked her about how she was feeling.
Despite getting out of bed to be the most treacherous objective,
She always made sure everyone around her was as happy as she couldn't be.
Her smile and raven black hair always lit up the room.
She was troubled, but in the end she left me a lesson to follow in this short time called life.

People aren't practically perfect in every way.
It's possible that people pull themselves apart.
For the probability they'll find a potential position in this limited time, called life.

But it doesn't have to be this way.
Love yourself and know your morals because it isn't possible to get through life if you don't.