Memories [random updates]

Memories | 08

It's quite interesting, if you think about it; all the different ways a person could die.

For example, they could die a natural death at an old age - though nowadays it appears quite common for a parent to outlive their child - but, whatever. Some people decide to cut their lifeline short and commit suicide despite the fact that there's always someone out there who's got it worse than them, but whatever.

And then there are those people who die young, or earlier than what may have been expected of them due to a horrific accident or terminal illness.

Those people are normally the ones who are happy and healthy, as if death only strikes a person when they least expect it.

My grandfather was 51 when he died, it's not exactly a young age, but he was healthy and everyone thought that he would stick around for an odd twenty more years or so. But again, going back to what I had mentioned earlier, death is unexpected. It's almost as if it crawls up on you, taking your life even if you're not ready to leave this world yet.

It was kind of ironic that he died of a heart attack despite the fact that he was actually the healthiest man I've ever known.

I could vaguely remember the time when I was 7, - apparently they call it elementary school over here in America - and there was this boy in my class who told everybody that he had cancer.

He just came in one day announced it to the whole class. Now, being at the immature and ignorant age of 7, I didn't really know what it was so I listened intently as he explained the whole situation whilst accepting some help from the teacher here and there.

At the time, I didn't really know what to make of the situation seeing as I had just been newly exposed to the whole concept of death and disease.

In my defense, the boy with cancer - who I later learned was called Kyle - didn't fully understand what was happening to him either. There were some moments during his explanation where he would smile and act all joyful, as if proud that he had cancer, and the next moment his mood had dropped.

But I guess that was what cancer - or more specifically speaking - death did to you.

The boy, Kyle explained how some parts of his body had mutated, like Wolverine he had stated gleefully before carrying on speaking in a not so cheery manner.

He then proceeded to explain how this change inside his body would affect the outside of his body. Like how he would soon start losing hair, and how he would start getting ill more often, illnesses such as the flu and the common cold.

I could still remember that day vividly, as if it had been carved into my brain, a memory unable for me to forget.

The months following after that informative day at school, Kyle became a known figure in our primary school. He made more friends and he became popular. Even the teachers sympathised with him and didn't mind too much when he started to miss days of school.

My initial thought at the time was that he was missing days on purpose, because he thought that he would be able to get away with it seeing as he had drastically become popular.

But it was later revealed that he had started missing days because he had to make frequent hospital visits so that the doctors would be able to how his cancer was going; seeing whether it was improving or getting worse.

At first, there was some hope. Kyle had come into school after being missing from school a week and had announced that he was getting better and that the cancer was disappearing. The happiness and joy of this was evident in his face.

That was about two and a half months after Kyle had first announced that he had cancer in the first place. Three days later Kyle was missing from school again, but this time he wouldn't be coming in the next day, or the day after that.