"Memories" by Deija Magalogo

              She looked robotic. The many tubes attached to her made her look this way. Her eyes were closed and her mouth open. Her body looked weak and in pain. There were so many other times where she had to go to the hospital and she always came out fine, but this time was different. I wish I could have said goodbye when she was awake. As soon as I walked out of the room I broke down in tears. Felt like a dam broke and water was gushing out of my eyes. I hated seeing her like this. Next to me was Sophia, my older cousin. She was about 12 or 13 years old at the time. She had thick black hair and a red face from crying so much. We both sat outside of the room and sobbed. Suddenly my mother came, wrapped her arms around both of us and said “It’s gonna be okay.” Soon afterwards we went into the waiting room with the rest of the family. We went behind a wall that separated the waiting room. Behind that wall was a railing and across from it were the windows that showed the road and cars going by. We sat there for a while and while Sophia kept sobbing I was thinking about all the great times I had with my great grandmother Mona, who was in the hospital bed. I not only loved her just because she was my great grandma but because she was such a strong, loving and caring woman. I admired her for that. I thought of how she would always welcome us when we visited her. Her smile brought happiness and smiles upon all of our faces. She would peck all our cheeks with a kiss as soon as we saw her. I came to reality as soon as my mom came back to ask Sophia and I if we were alright. We both answered yes with sniffles and wet faces. I went to go watch the little kids on the other side of the wall.

 I remembered the family meeting we had the day before. We all had the chairs in an oval like shape to fit everyone in. All of the adults were in the chairs while the children sat in on the floor. We were all in the biggest part of the waiting room so that everyone could be included in the family meeting. I remember my grandmother yelling about how one of the older men tried to pull the plug on my great grandmother Mona before any of the family members who were flying in, came to see her. She was right though. Mostly everyone thought the same things she was saying. There was so much arguing going on and to make it worse everyone was tired. We were all so worried and everything was so stressful. In the end they thought of one thing. They just chose to go through with my great uncles decision.

               I soon went back to reality when my dad came into the room and asked me if I wanted to see Grandma Mona one more time before she would be gone. I said no because I couldn’t bear to see her in pain within her last few moments. I wanted to remember her as the woman she was, a strong, loving and caring woman. Now that’s all I can see her as. I look to her as a role model and I will always miss her.