A Moment of Sorrow, A Moment of Rally

I follow a blog where the author often talks about rallying. A moment where you pull everything within you and charge ahead or a moment when you and the people you love gather together to charge ahead. Well, this past week has been all about rallying. My grandfather past away this past Thursday afternoon.

After writing that last sentence, I don't really know where to go from there. It's still hard to wrap my head around the idea.

I guess I could always start from the beginning. My grandfather was born and raised in Virginia. He had the typical country life. He was the oldest of 7 children, 6 boys and 1 girl. I don't know much about his childhood other than that his family was poor. He met my grandmother when her family moved down the road from his family. They didn't like each other at first, but eventually fell in love and got married. They had 5 children, 4 girls and 1 boy who died at birth. My grandfather had various jobs that included working in the coal mines and owning a country store, but they were poor. My grandfather was a hard, strict man. My mom and aunts used to tell us how scared they were of him. They said when they heard him coming home from work they would run and hide in their rooms. He was that way for a long time. I remember he used to always have this scowl on his face, almost as if he was always mad about something. He used to get after me and my cousins for everything. Don't run in the house, don't put your feet on the furniture, get your elbows off the table, be quiet, don't walk on the grass, stay away from the flowers. He didn't like anything us kids did.

Grandma and Grandpa

Then one day everything changed. My grandmother went to church every Sunday and Wednesday. And everytime she went she would ask my grandfather to come, but he always said no. One Wednesday night my grandmother left for church and left my grandfather in his usual chair. When she came home, she came home to a different man. God had been pulling on my grandfather's heart strings and after my grandmother had left that night, he called a friend of his and asked him if he could come to his church. That night he went down to the alter and gave his heart over to the Lord. And from that night on, my grandfather was a different man.

Grandpa reading the Bible

Through the years my grandfather had a lot of health problems. He was diagnosed with so many things, many being wrong. He's had numerous types of cancer, even having a part of his ear and nose cut off for cancer. Doctors eventually discovered he had leukemia. They tried treating it, but it spread over his whole body and they weren't able to do anything for him anymore. He was sent home with Hospice and a few days later passed.

1937-2010

I feel as if I've been on autopilot this past week. I've been in and out of the hospital, even spent the night when they thought he wouldn't make it through to the morning. My family has rallied together and has been such support to each other. The night before he passed, everyone got the call that he would be going soon. So everyone camped at my grandparents house in the living room where my grandfather was all night. I feel blessed to have the kind of family I do. We may not always get along, but when it really matters, we rally.