Summer 1999
It was the winter of 2000 when we got the news. It was an unbearable pain that I didn’t think I could handle. I was really close to my Great Grandma even though she lived in Iowa and I lived in Washington. The night before I had called her, but she didn’t answer. So I figured that she was put with some of her friends, but never did I think she was dead. Sometime during the night she had just went in her sleep. This one time I remember when we were back in Iowa for a family reunion.

The air was hot and humid. The brown grass crunched as we walked over it. “Travis, did you bring your fishing pole and tackle box?” replied my grandma. She was wearing a bright yellow shirt with butterflies and pants that were plaid blue. She had the smell of grandpa’s pipe mixed with the smell that old people have. “Yes I did. Is grandpa coming?” I asked. She looked at me and her stare was telling me that he wasn’t coming with us. She said, “Yes of coarse he just went to the store to get some bait and food for us.” Right after she said that, my grandpa came driving down the drive way in his van. It was a Chrysler and the color was golden brown as gold could ever be. He got out and said, “What are you waiting for, the grass to grow, load up.” We loaded up and the next thing I knew we were off.

Sitting in van was very different than any other I had seen or felt. It had golden brown leather that shimmered in the light, heated seats, and a 5-CD stereo changer with an extremely y good bass system. My Grandma put in Garth Brooks and started singing the first verse of the Thunder Rolls.
Three-thirty in the morning, not a soul in sight. The city’s looking like a ghost town on a moonless summer night. Raindrops on the windshield, there’s a storm moving in, he’s heading back from somewhere that he never should have been.
She stopped singing and pointed out a deer with a baby, they were over the ditch eating grass. “What magnificent deer.” Grandma said. “Yes I agree,” Grandpa also said. “Yep and they are big too.” I replied. We all laughed.
We got there and I grabbed the fishing poles while my grandpa had went and grabbed the tackle boxes. We started walking to our favorite spot to fish. My grandpa and grandma walked side by side I followed up close behind them. The path that we were going down had all sorts of colors. The trees, leaves, bark, squirrels, and deer. It reminded me a lot of a rainbow. We had finally reached the fishing hole and it was deserted like a ghost town on Christmas Eve. The benches were made with a light brownish color that was amazingly made. The water glistened in the sunlight like I have never seen before. Grandpa had already put the bait on the hook and was about to cast when his pole snapped in half. I then started laughing and started to hand him my pole when he pushed towards my hands. So I then put on green bait and made sure my pole was in correct order before I casted. It went and kept going. We were there for a very long time and we caught a lot of fish and learned a lot about each other. My grandma had caught 3 and I caught 6 while my grandpa caught none since his pole snapped at the beginning.

That was the last time I ever saw her. Her death came so unexpectedly that it took me a while to figure out what to do next. She was the one person I could trust really well and now she is gone. She told me one time “Imagine life as a highway and you’re riding on it. You start with a crappy car just like you start with crappy things. Over the period of life you get a new car and you get new things. You also make small accidents or pit stops on your way to your destination. On the highway you also feel free as a bird just like when you are riding in life. Then there are those big accidents that happen when you don’t expect it. Just like death. Death can come at any time of any day and you will have to be ready for it and accept it.” She gave me the idea that we should rejoice when people die for this world is not our home, we are aliens in this unknown world just making a pit stop along the way to our true and awesomely home.