Circle of Life

This past weekend Jeremy and I were in California. We got a call Wednesday night from his mom that his grandpa wasn’t doing good and that we needed to come home. His grandpa has been battling cancer and it seems like it is winning the battle over his body.

Jeremy’s brother and his brother’s wife (Corey & Caroline) made the trip out from Boston. When Jeremy’s sister picked us up from the airport it was nice to see each other, but of course we all wished it was under different circumstances.

I’ve never really had to say goodbye to someone I loved before. My grandma died of Alzheimer’s and my memory of her is filled with visits to the home and looking into her eyes which seemed to be begging for help, but her voice was unable to express any of her thoughts. I was close to my grandma as a child, but I was really young when she got sick so my memories of her are mostly of when she was sick.

Jeremy and everyone was holding up as well as possible. I think there is comfort in family and knowing that you are not alone with your feelings. I think that having all of us there perked up his grandfather at times. He made a few jokes and was pretty coherent. He was sleeping most of the time and not eating much. It was tough to see him laying on a bed in the living room, but he did seem as comfortable as possible.

As all of this was going on I was receiving updates on the birth of my best friend’s twin babies. Corrine and Jackson were born on May 7th at 1:42 and 1:43pm. The same night we got the call about Jeremy’s grandpa, I got a call from Rene saying that they were going to be born. It just goes to show you that life and death really is a circle. Mom and babies are happy and healthy, hoping to go home sometime this week.

Even though death is such a hard reality to face it makes you realize how precious life is and that you really have to make the most of your time. Life is too short to stress and worry about all the little things that go wrong or not the way you expect.


Leaving Sacramento and actually saying goodbye was extremely hard, knowing that it may be the last time we get to say goodbye. We are thankful for the time we got to spend with Norman (dubbed by Caroline as “Bullet”) this past weekend. Now, we will just wait for updates from his Mom and hope that he is comfortable.

Here are a couple of quotes that I thought really express my thoughts over the past weekend.

“It's the circle of life, and it moves us all, through despair and hope, through faith and love, 'till we find our place, on the path unwinding” -Elton John


“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years”.—Abraham Lincoln