Death at the Door (story)

I was at my brother's house because my parents were in the Bahamas for their twenty-fifth anniversary; even though they weren't married for that long, they have been together for twenty-five years. I guess my dad figured they might not get a chance to go anywhere big like the bahamas agian, so since they were close to twenty-five years, they decided to celebrate it then, so I was staying at my brother's till they retuned home. Well, I was buried in a deep concentration about the conversation I was in with a person online. It was about eight thirty at night in the middle of the week, during the summer. My concentration got broken along with the silence of the house, when the tink of the dooprbell echoed through the house. I found it strangely odd for someone to be ringing the doorbell at this time at night, but I decided to get upto see who it was anyway. To my concerned surprise I found my grandma standing outside the door. She was sort of out of breath, and you could tell something wasn't right by the crackling in her voice. the first thing she said was, "You might want to sit down." The very fist thing that bolted into my head and out of my mouth was, "what happend to grandpa!!!" what she said after that was the hardest thing for my ears to listen to, the words that came crackling out of her like a bad connection were seven of the worst words that I possibly have ever heard. "Your father just had a hard attack" I knew that this time he didn't make it. After that everything around me became a blur, nothing moved and I felt like I was just floating in totally black abyss. Fom that moment on it felt like nothing really mattered; I couldn't even hear the words of my sister-in-law, or feel her arms wrapped around me. At that moment, at that time, nothing really existed other then the flooding of tears in my eyes and the ache in my heart. It was as though all life stopped... Out of the black abyss I heard my three year old nephew's tiny voice, with all the innocents of a child, say, "why are you guys crying?" those words sounded so innocent, but yet so real and heart filled. It made my heart stop aching for myself, but for him for not having as much time with my father and knowing him. I am sure that he will barely even remember his grandpa and how wonderful he was. He could make frowns turn upside down and chase gray clouds out of any stormy sky. He was the most positive person I have known; he always could look at the good in anything. After my nephew T.J. said those words, I stopped thinking about my problems so much but thinking about others. Knowing how strong my mother had to be when he passed out from the heart attack and died right in front of her eyes. She was just really lucky that they were staying at a family's vacation house with people that knew their way around and how things worked in the Bahamas. I knew I would miss him, and that it would be hard, but I knew that I could always find his essence buried in my heart. It was almost two weeks before his body was returned to the United States, and about another day or two before we could manage to have his wake and funeral. So it was like torture to the family to have to wait so long to have the wake and fueral, before the real grieving process could start. I never though I would have to go through most of my major events in life without my father to be there to celebrate moving into a new house, my high school graduation, and walking me down the isle. I know he is probably happier where ever he is for he has had a lot of health problems in the last few years and I would rather know that he is a peace then see him in pain. Everyone has their own time to come and their own time to go and this was his time to go. As I believe, grain isn't grain till it is planted, harvested and eaten and a human isn't a human till he is born, lived and returns to the ground. Everything has its own process and death for a human is part of it.