Losing my grandmother at such a young age has always impacted me greatly. I was only 11 when my grandmother died of diabetes and natural causes on October 24th, 2008 at 8:00 PM. As a fifth grader, I didn't know what death truly meant; losing someone forever and that they've passed on. She was only 73 when she died and it still haunts me to this day that I could die early. But it's been almost 8 years since her passing, and a lot has changed. I would give anything to have one more conversation with her.

When she died, I thought that she was on a vacation and that she was coming back; well I was sadly wrong. Since her passing, I have successfully graduated high school with high honors, started my collegiate career at Mitchell as an Early Childhood Education student, and am in the preliminary stages of the next chapter in my life.

Now, under unusual circumstances, I lived with my grandmother and I've known her for so long, that when she died it hit me harder than I was ever expecting. Not having her sitting on the couch watching The Golden Girls really killed me. That was one of our favorite pastimes to do.

If I could speak to her once more, I would tell her how much I miss her and how much I have accomplished since her death. I was close to her in a way that I wasn't with most others in my family. I would tell her to thank you for letting me live with you; an endowment that I could never repay in my wildest daydreams. For that, I will be eternally grateful.

To conclude, losing someone as special as your grandmother is hard; and I envy those who can share memories with their living grandmothers. When you lose someone, you learn to heal and move on with life, always remembering them and what they did for you. Never lose faith and I always have her sitting on my shoulder when I need her.