Post by Skylar Hafer on Nov 24, 2006 21:55:11 GMT -5
This Book was submitted. Books do not need to be reviewed before they're put up on display in the library. Just make the story and post it.
Nana, the Legend
By Skylar Strickler
Based on a true story
I remember it so well. It didn’t catch me off guard, but I wasn’t ready for what lied ahead. I was getting off the bus to band class and I was teasing my friends with jokes from the day before. Everything seemed normal, except that we were told to just have a seat and be quiet. Well, that was no surprise, since yesterday was our band concert, and today we are going to watch our performance from the concert. We all were talking quietly, and then it became a menace of a noise. As a bonus, people felt right at home to start walking and hollering all over the place. Mr. Lillard came into the classroom and told everyone to hush, that he was almost done with whatever it was he was doing, and that we needed to stop running around. Imagine that. Us? Running around? Never! He turned to go back to his music room, and everyone got a little more rowdy.
He came in about a minute later and started talking to us about how well we did in the concert and what we could have done differently. It was pretty good. He didn’t get too far into his talk with us when, as far as I remember, he left to go answer the phone. Mr. Lillard came back out and told me I needed to meet my dad on the north side of the building. So I told my friends it might be something about my nana, and I said my good-byes to my good friends.
I went outside of the building, where a bus was parked, bus driver in the seat and all. I walked to the side of the building I thought was the North side, no Dad. I went to the opposite end, no Dad. I went to another end, and still, no Dad. I started to get frustrated, because then I was so worried I’d look so pathetic to the bus driver. I felt as if my dad was making me look stupid. I was too caught up in the moment to think clearly what could have happened that he wasn’t here yet. So, I decided to go back into class and tell Mr. Lillard what happened. I told him my dad wasn’t here and he said “well then we’ll just make him come in and get you.”
I walked over to my seat, seeing confused faces to my right and my left. I told them my dad wasn’t here. Then the most ironic thing happened. There he was, my dad, peering through the window in the door looking for me. He turned right at me and saw me. He peeked his head in the door, got Mr. Lillard’s attention, and I was off to the truck with my dad. We didn’t talk a whole lot, since I had a good hint about what was going on. I was so sure that my nana died, I started to cry a little. I tried to keep my cool, since I was in front of my dad and all, but that didn’t really work out the way I thought it would. You could only notice slightly that I was really crying.
I asked him what was going on and how serious it was. It took him a few seconds, but he eventually said “Nana passed away.”
That’s when I lost it. I had Tears falling out of my eyes into my lap. I tried to hold them in, but it did no good. I wiped my eyes only to find that the tears wouldn’t stop coming out. My dad was going on about how god of a person Nana was and going all he could to comfort me, and it helped. I stopped crying by the time we reached the school, where I was to gather my things so I could finish my homework.
I walked inside, my cheeks all red from the dried up tears. I headed for the office. I usually joked around with the secretaries and made a few impressions, but today was different. I could see that they knew what happened. I ask them what I should do. I was told to get my things that I know I need to get done right now, and get homework on Monday.
I had a worksheet that I was supposed to turn in to a teacher whose class I would be having when I got to the school. With me being the person I am, I kind of wanted people to see me, to know what was going on. So I took the worksheets to the teacher. I spent another minute at my locker gathering my things up. I had a couple of things to do in every subject, so I grabbed a lot of books.
As I entered the building, my dad following closely behind, I saw my mom standing in the middle of the hallway, face as red as an apple. You could tell she was crying. I had tears building up the moment I walked into the nursing home, but I didn’t let many out until I was hugging my mom. We just hugged for a while, crying. My mom eventually walked me around the corner to the hallway where I could see every other family member that was in town sitting in the hallway. As we walked towards them, the elders were just watching my mom and I cry. I didn’t really care; I was just so overwhelmed how upsetting it was to be here, knowing my nana was lying dead in a room.
We got to the room where Nana was. The family members were looking at me, so depressingly. I walked into the room with my mom. As I turned the corner, I saw my grandmother lying in the bed, mouth open wide, lifeless. There were so many things going through my mind. Was she really dead? Is this really happening to me? Am I dreaming?
You might sometimes think ‘They’re so stupid to be thinking that. Of course they’re not dreaming. I would never think that.’ But when that kind of thing happens to you, that’s all that you can think about. It’s just so hard to grab onto. The fact that someone you love so, so much has left you.
When we got in there, Granddaddy had stood up, sober and wet as a whistle. I went over and gave him a big huge hug. “I’m so sorry,” I moaned. “I’m sorry.”
“We're all sorry,” he said, just as sad.
Aunt Cindy was in the big recliner when we got in the room. She got up when I gave Granddaddy a hug. My mom took her place in the recliner. I continued to hug Granddaddy tightly until the moment had faded. That’s when I went and sat on her lap, and cried on her should. I just couldn’t believe it was happening to me. I got up a few moments later to look at Nana again. I couldn’t not look at her since it was so hard to grasp onto, the fact and all.
After a few minutes, I left the room to sit in a chair right outside the door. I just sat there, still crying. We had a little family talk about this and I talked with the other relatives in the hallway. I went back into the room to look at Nana a few more times, unable to say good-bye. I asked my mom and dad if I would see her again. They replied with a yes.
That afternoon went by kind of fast. Going home to eat a small and quick snack and then brushing up with my friends on the computer about what happened to me that day took up most of my time.
Around six o’clock that night, all of the family members came over and we all shared stories and had conversations with each other. You see my Uncle Tom works at a bank, which had donated a lot of food. My Aunt Julie, his wife, works at a school, which had also donated a lot of food. So we had food set for the whole family for the rest of the week and part of the next week. A lot of people knew Nana, which is a great thing. That means she would have had a greater impact on other people’s lives.
When my cousin Jordan and I would get bored, we’d go downstairs and kick around an exercising ball. It would annoy the grown-ups upstairs, but they got used to it. It was something to pass the time and to keep out minds off of what had just happened.
* * * * * * * * * * *
The next day, Saturday, went by kind of slow. I would play the piano and play a game on the computer, and eat, and that was about it. They kept my mind off of what happened. It was like a normal day for me. I would occasionally think, what is wrong with me? Nana just died? Why am I not doing anything? Those questions just sat in my head and did nothing to affect me, until that night.
Once again, everyone came over to my house to have dinner. We all sat down and ate to our heart’s content as we watched the Madge’s retirement video from The First Christian Church. We would all make chit-chat about how different everything was in the church from its current status today. It was a fairly long video, but she must have been one heck of a gal to have her own retirement video. We would all share a few stories about Nana and what we did with her. That night we had a few visitors, and as they came over, the video still played on. A few times I would think to myself, what are these people doing over here? Then I would remember everything that happened.
After everyone went home, all the kids gathered at my Aunt Julie’s house for a discussion with Pastor Steve. He would get stories from all of the kids to share at the funeral. There were things I would not have remembered on the spot. Some were new to me, some were very vague to my memory, and others easy for me to remember. We all went home with fresh memories in our mind.
The next day, Sunday, was ok to get by. There wasn’t much going on, except for the same dinner at my house. The reality had finally set in at this dinner. We were making plans for the funeral and visitation and I couldn’t help but breaking into tears. I went to hide somewhere in the house so I could get over it. My dad eventually saw me and talked to me about her and comforted me. I stopped crying and we continued with our dinner for that night. Everyone went home and went to sleep, while I was left thinking, how could this be?
Monday was the visitation. Because I didn’t have time to do my homework over the weekend, I had a lot of homework to make up. Christmas was going to be the coming Sunday, and there were a lot of emotions flowing through my mind. If anyone in school would ask me about Nana, I would try to just say “Thank you for asking” or that I was doing well, but I wasn’t.
The day went by slowly because half of the things the teachers were teaching related to their lessons from Friday and I couldn’t remember some of the lessons because my head was so clouded with thoughts about Nana.
When the passing periods came, I would casually walk to my locker, dodging comments that would make me publicly cry, and then hurry to get my things in my locker and walk to class.
I didn’t talk as much as I usually did during lunch that day. Some of my friends didn’t know much about what had happened so I told them what I could, which was basically “My nana died.”
I went to the visitation that night in hopes of seeing one of my teachers come, since I had told them that day about it. I looked at my nana and cried my heart out. It was tough, but I was so happy to see her so peaceful. One of her stuffed bears that she carried around with her in the nursing home was sitting by her in the coffin and her favorite piece of music was pinned to the roof cochin. I couldn’t stop crying, but I was so glad to see her.
As my friends came to see me and friends of the family came to see everything, they would stop and say wonderful things my nana did in their life. It made me think a little bit more every time I heard something good about her. The time flew by and I would stop by her coffin and cry some more to try and get it out of my system, but it never stopped. I would look at her life’s book made by her sister, or my Aunt, Joan with my cousin Jordan, the same one that I would play bounce back with at the family dinners at my house.
I would occasionally go out to the lobby and stare out the windows for a few minutes at a time keeping wide eyes for the teacher I was hoping to see.
When the visitation ended, the family went home and the teacher hadn’t shown up. I was disappointed but thought that she must not have been able to make it.
* * * * * * * * * * *
I got out of school early because I had to get ready for the funeral that night.
The family members were kept out of site of the visitors until the funeral began, which was when we all walked to our seats in the pews. I started crying at about the beginning of the funeral and couldn’t stop. Sometimes when I would remember something that made me happy I would cry a little louder, which I couldn’t control, of course. I would try to quickly calm down, which wouldn’t work. I was so glad for Nana, that we could be showing her our love. The funeral service wasn’t just a service, it was a celebration of her kingdom come. There were slideshows and music and words of comfort. When the funeral service was over and the family all got up I went to see her one last time. I helped close up the coffin, and then got my coat. We were heading for the cemetery next.
The cemetery ceremony took a while, but it was worth while. Saying my last good-byes took some time. It was drastically cold outside and there was mud in many places near the burial site, so I was a little glad when it was over so my feet wouldn’t freeze.
When it was over, I went home and got right to my new homework assignments. I would need to start right away if I wanted to be ready for a test by the end of the week.
As the week went on the homework came up, but I got it all done by the end of the week and got a good grade on each of my tests. I was so glad to get so much stress off of my mind with Christmas coming up. I didn’t want to have worries while I was having Christmas. That wouldn’t be very fun for me.
Christmas Eve came and our families went to the same church ceremonies as we did the other years but this year, instead of gathering at Nana and Granddaddy’s house to open presents, we opened presents at our house.
It was so life changing how Nana could die at her favorite time of the year and how her presents wouldn’t be opened. It was quieter while opening presents than the years before. It was so odd, it didn’t seem real. But it was. It really was.
I remember seeing granddaddy at all of the family gatherings staring into space, like he couldn’t help it. In my heart I cried for him. I felt like he and I were the two to be most hurt by Nana’s death. It was always hard not to cry when such a great person left us.
I would just like to say that all in all, I am happy she died, because she doesn’t have to endure the pain anymore. I’m going to miss her, but we’re all happy that she went to a better place. It’s hard to let go of someone who touched so many lives, but I am honored to say that I am one of them that she has forever touched.
(¯`v´¯)
`*.¸.*´
¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•. Your Grandson
[/color]
Please, do not reply with any crude/rude/inacceptable comments. Staff, please do not edit. If you spot any grammatical or spelling errors, please let me know.
Nana, the Legend
By Skylar Strickler
Based on a true story
I remember it so well. It didn’t catch me off guard, but I wasn’t ready for what lied ahead. I was getting off the bus to band class and I was teasing my friends with jokes from the day before. Everything seemed normal, except that we were told to just have a seat and be quiet. Well, that was no surprise, since yesterday was our band concert, and today we are going to watch our performance from the concert. We all were talking quietly, and then it became a menace of a noise. As a bonus, people felt right at home to start walking and hollering all over the place. Mr. Lillard came into the classroom and told everyone to hush, that he was almost done with whatever it was he was doing, and that we needed to stop running around. Imagine that. Us? Running around? Never! He turned to go back to his music room, and everyone got a little more rowdy.
He came in about a minute later and started talking to us about how well we did in the concert and what we could have done differently. It was pretty good. He didn’t get too far into his talk with us when, as far as I remember, he left to go answer the phone. Mr. Lillard came back out and told me I needed to meet my dad on the north side of the building. So I told my friends it might be something about my nana, and I said my good-byes to my good friends.
I went outside of the building, where a bus was parked, bus driver in the seat and all. I walked to the side of the building I thought was the North side, no Dad. I went to the opposite end, no Dad. I went to another end, and still, no Dad. I started to get frustrated, because then I was so worried I’d look so pathetic to the bus driver. I felt as if my dad was making me look stupid. I was too caught up in the moment to think clearly what could have happened that he wasn’t here yet. So, I decided to go back into class and tell Mr. Lillard what happened. I told him my dad wasn’t here and he said “well then we’ll just make him come in and get you.”
I walked over to my seat, seeing confused faces to my right and my left. I told them my dad wasn’t here. Then the most ironic thing happened. There he was, my dad, peering through the window in the door looking for me. He turned right at me and saw me. He peeked his head in the door, got Mr. Lillard’s attention, and I was off to the truck with my dad. We didn’t talk a whole lot, since I had a good hint about what was going on. I was so sure that my nana died, I started to cry a little. I tried to keep my cool, since I was in front of my dad and all, but that didn’t really work out the way I thought it would. You could only notice slightly that I was really crying.
I asked him what was going on and how serious it was. It took him a few seconds, but he eventually said “Nana passed away.”
That’s when I lost it. I had Tears falling out of my eyes into my lap. I tried to hold them in, but it did no good. I wiped my eyes only to find that the tears wouldn’t stop coming out. My dad was going on about how god of a person Nana was and going all he could to comfort me, and it helped. I stopped crying by the time we reached the school, where I was to gather my things so I could finish my homework.
I walked inside, my cheeks all red from the dried up tears. I headed for the office. I usually joked around with the secretaries and made a few impressions, but today was different. I could see that they knew what happened. I ask them what I should do. I was told to get my things that I know I need to get done right now, and get homework on Monday.
I had a worksheet that I was supposed to turn in to a teacher whose class I would be having when I got to the school. With me being the person I am, I kind of wanted people to see me, to know what was going on. So I took the worksheets to the teacher. I spent another minute at my locker gathering my things up. I had a couple of things to do in every subject, so I grabbed a lot of books.
As I entered the building, my dad following closely behind, I saw my mom standing in the middle of the hallway, face as red as an apple. You could tell she was crying. I had tears building up the moment I walked into the nursing home, but I didn’t let many out until I was hugging my mom. We just hugged for a while, crying. My mom eventually walked me around the corner to the hallway where I could see every other family member that was in town sitting in the hallway. As we walked towards them, the elders were just watching my mom and I cry. I didn’t really care; I was just so overwhelmed how upsetting it was to be here, knowing my nana was lying dead in a room.
We got to the room where Nana was. The family members were looking at me, so depressingly. I walked into the room with my mom. As I turned the corner, I saw my grandmother lying in the bed, mouth open wide, lifeless. There were so many things going through my mind. Was she really dead? Is this really happening to me? Am I dreaming?
You might sometimes think ‘They’re so stupid to be thinking that. Of course they’re not dreaming. I would never think that.’ But when that kind of thing happens to you, that’s all that you can think about. It’s just so hard to grab onto. The fact that someone you love so, so much has left you.
When we got in there, Granddaddy had stood up, sober and wet as a whistle. I went over and gave him a big huge hug. “I’m so sorry,” I moaned. “I’m sorry.”
“We're all sorry,” he said, just as sad.
Aunt Cindy was in the big recliner when we got in the room. She got up when I gave Granddaddy a hug. My mom took her place in the recliner. I continued to hug Granddaddy tightly until the moment had faded. That’s when I went and sat on her lap, and cried on her should. I just couldn’t believe it was happening to me. I got up a few moments later to look at Nana again. I couldn’t not look at her since it was so hard to grasp onto, the fact and all.
After a few minutes, I left the room to sit in a chair right outside the door. I just sat there, still crying. We had a little family talk about this and I talked with the other relatives in the hallway. I went back into the room to look at Nana a few more times, unable to say good-bye. I asked my mom and dad if I would see her again. They replied with a yes.
That afternoon went by kind of fast. Going home to eat a small and quick snack and then brushing up with my friends on the computer about what happened to me that day took up most of my time.
Around six o’clock that night, all of the family members came over and we all shared stories and had conversations with each other. You see my Uncle Tom works at a bank, which had donated a lot of food. My Aunt Julie, his wife, works at a school, which had also donated a lot of food. So we had food set for the whole family for the rest of the week and part of the next week. A lot of people knew Nana, which is a great thing. That means she would have had a greater impact on other people’s lives.
When my cousin Jordan and I would get bored, we’d go downstairs and kick around an exercising ball. It would annoy the grown-ups upstairs, but they got used to it. It was something to pass the time and to keep out minds off of what had just happened.
* * * * * * * * * * *
The next day, Saturday, went by kind of slow. I would play the piano and play a game on the computer, and eat, and that was about it. They kept my mind off of what happened. It was like a normal day for me. I would occasionally think, what is wrong with me? Nana just died? Why am I not doing anything? Those questions just sat in my head and did nothing to affect me, until that night.
Once again, everyone came over to my house to have dinner. We all sat down and ate to our heart’s content as we watched the Madge’s retirement video from The First Christian Church. We would all make chit-chat about how different everything was in the church from its current status today. It was a fairly long video, but she must have been one heck of a gal to have her own retirement video. We would all share a few stories about Nana and what we did with her. That night we had a few visitors, and as they came over, the video still played on. A few times I would think to myself, what are these people doing over here? Then I would remember everything that happened.
After everyone went home, all the kids gathered at my Aunt Julie’s house for a discussion with Pastor Steve. He would get stories from all of the kids to share at the funeral. There were things I would not have remembered on the spot. Some were new to me, some were very vague to my memory, and others easy for me to remember. We all went home with fresh memories in our mind.
The next day, Sunday, was ok to get by. There wasn’t much going on, except for the same dinner at my house. The reality had finally set in at this dinner. We were making plans for the funeral and visitation and I couldn’t help but breaking into tears. I went to hide somewhere in the house so I could get over it. My dad eventually saw me and talked to me about her and comforted me. I stopped crying and we continued with our dinner for that night. Everyone went home and went to sleep, while I was left thinking, how could this be?
Monday was the visitation. Because I didn’t have time to do my homework over the weekend, I had a lot of homework to make up. Christmas was going to be the coming Sunday, and there were a lot of emotions flowing through my mind. If anyone in school would ask me about Nana, I would try to just say “Thank you for asking” or that I was doing well, but I wasn’t.
The day went by slowly because half of the things the teachers were teaching related to their lessons from Friday and I couldn’t remember some of the lessons because my head was so clouded with thoughts about Nana.
When the passing periods came, I would casually walk to my locker, dodging comments that would make me publicly cry, and then hurry to get my things in my locker and walk to class.
I didn’t talk as much as I usually did during lunch that day. Some of my friends didn’t know much about what had happened so I told them what I could, which was basically “My nana died.”
I went to the visitation that night in hopes of seeing one of my teachers come, since I had told them that day about it. I looked at my nana and cried my heart out. It was tough, but I was so happy to see her so peaceful. One of her stuffed bears that she carried around with her in the nursing home was sitting by her in the coffin and her favorite piece of music was pinned to the roof cochin. I couldn’t stop crying, but I was so glad to see her.
As my friends came to see me and friends of the family came to see everything, they would stop and say wonderful things my nana did in their life. It made me think a little bit more every time I heard something good about her. The time flew by and I would stop by her coffin and cry some more to try and get it out of my system, but it never stopped. I would look at her life’s book made by her sister, or my Aunt, Joan with my cousin Jordan, the same one that I would play bounce back with at the family dinners at my house.
I would occasionally go out to the lobby and stare out the windows for a few minutes at a time keeping wide eyes for the teacher I was hoping to see.
When the visitation ended, the family went home and the teacher hadn’t shown up. I was disappointed but thought that she must not have been able to make it.
* * * * * * * * * * *
I got out of school early because I had to get ready for the funeral that night.
The family members were kept out of site of the visitors until the funeral began, which was when we all walked to our seats in the pews. I started crying at about the beginning of the funeral and couldn’t stop. Sometimes when I would remember something that made me happy I would cry a little louder, which I couldn’t control, of course. I would try to quickly calm down, which wouldn’t work. I was so glad for Nana, that we could be showing her our love. The funeral service wasn’t just a service, it was a celebration of her kingdom come. There were slideshows and music and words of comfort. When the funeral service was over and the family all got up I went to see her one last time. I helped close up the coffin, and then got my coat. We were heading for the cemetery next.
The cemetery ceremony took a while, but it was worth while. Saying my last good-byes took some time. It was drastically cold outside and there was mud in many places near the burial site, so I was a little glad when it was over so my feet wouldn’t freeze.
When it was over, I went home and got right to my new homework assignments. I would need to start right away if I wanted to be ready for a test by the end of the week.
As the week went on the homework came up, but I got it all done by the end of the week and got a good grade on each of my tests. I was so glad to get so much stress off of my mind with Christmas coming up. I didn’t want to have worries while I was having Christmas. That wouldn’t be very fun for me.
Christmas Eve came and our families went to the same church ceremonies as we did the other years but this year, instead of gathering at Nana and Granddaddy’s house to open presents, we opened presents at our house.
It was so life changing how Nana could die at her favorite time of the year and how her presents wouldn’t be opened. It was quieter while opening presents than the years before. It was so odd, it didn’t seem real. But it was. It really was.
I remember seeing granddaddy at all of the family gatherings staring into space, like he couldn’t help it. In my heart I cried for him. I felt like he and I were the two to be most hurt by Nana’s death. It was always hard not to cry when such a great person left us.
I would just like to say that all in all, I am happy she died, because she doesn’t have to endure the pain anymore. I’m going to miss her, but we’re all happy that she went to a better place. It’s hard to let go of someone who touched so many lives, but I am honored to say that I am one of them that she has forever touched.
(¯`v´¯)
`*.¸.*´
¸.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•. Your Grandson
[/color]
Please, do not reply with any crude/rude/inacceptable comments. Staff, please do not edit. If you spot any grammatical or spelling errors, please let me know.
