In the fifth grade my grandfather died. I can remember it like it was yesterday. It was a wednesday after school and I just finished my homework when my mother got a phone call. It was my grandmother, her mother, calling to say that my grandfather had died. After she heard the news my mother, the one who is always strong for my and my siblings, was on the floor crying her eyes out. Since it was Wednesday we had CCD at our church. My mother told me to be strong and to get my siblings ready for CCD and to get them in the car. At church we had dinner with the other children who had CCD with us. BEcause my mother knew that we would not have had dinner if it was any other night. After CCD I gathered my siblings, we went home, and packed for Illinois. When we got to Illinois I was the one to gather my siblings and to keep them under control why my mother was talking with her family and my father was unloading our luggage into his parents house. A few days before the funeral my mother went to go look at her father's things and told me that I had to help my father with the little ones. At the funeral, while my siblings were hyped up on the cookies that were being served I was doing my best to keep my emotions under control, because if my mother was able to be strong at the funeral than so would I because if I started crying then she would start crying. On the way home home a few days later one of the tires popped on the way back to South Carolina. While the younger ones were screaming I was doing my best to keep them calm while my parents found a hotel for us to stop at. Once we stopped my parents told us to stay in the car and while some kids wanted out I told the younger ones that we were ok and that we would be out of the car soon. After the tire was fixed the next day we were on the road and were back home that night. I learned on that trip that my mother was fragile and that while she is strong for us we can be strong for her too, and that while the grieving process is long with the help of family it can be a little easier.
