I was sitting at the kitchen table with my brother just talking about random stuff when the phone rang. My mother answered, we heard her gasp and then she hung up. She ran in the kitchen " Grandpapa fell down again, but its not his usual, fall and get better, this is serious. I'm going to the hospital right now.
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All the family was standing around his bed. Then Aunty Poppy spoke up "I think we should all say our last words to him because we don't know when he will move on. I'll go first." All my aunts and Uncles said something when they all went I stammered through tears: Je t'aime grandpapa. I was the only cousin who had spoken up.
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My grandfather hated it at the civic hospital so my father and I were with him in his room until like 2 in the morning. He would ask for his shoes and grab my arm so that he could get out of his bed. It was a pitiful sight, but I would play along. That night I sort of invented a story to cheer him up. It was how I wish we could get on the roof and travel across the roofs of Ottawa until we got to his apartment. Of course this wasn’t true but it was just to cheer him up.
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Like I said previously my grandfather hated the Civic Hospital. It was not a place for an old man to pass away because it was very noisy. They decided to transfer him to Bruyère Hospital, which was a very calm hospital, more for elderly people who were dying. The staff who were there were extremely kind. My mum brought me to Bruyère Hospital for the first time on the second of november 2018 to visit my grandfather. We only stayed a few minutes but he recognized me and said “Bonjour Sara” when I arrived and goodbye when I left. The next morning we received a phone call from the hospital saying that Anselan Brian Buchanan (my grandfather) had past away. I can’t describe the feeling I felt inside me when my mother told me. My grandfather on my father’s side past away when I was six and him and I were very close. When he died my other grandfather sort of replaced what I had lost, but now that he had moved on, I had no more grandparents.
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We raced to the hospital. When we arrived, my four uncles, my three aunts and my step-grandmother were already there. My mother and I kneeled by the bed. His eyes were open and we couldn’t close them because all the mucus or whatever it was clumped so the eyelids wouldn’t budge. The funeral home people came to take his body. It was an incredibly painful experience. When they straightened his body out I realized what a tall man he had been. They covered him up in sheets and I thought that he was about to scream: “Will someone get these damn sheets off me!” because that’s what he would’ve done if he were alive and covered in sheets. We accompanied the funeral people to the elevator. The hospital staff had done an announcement that a deceased and his family were going to pass and that everyone come out and stand solemnly at the side of the hallway. Back in the room, my mother had given me a locket with a bit of his hair in it so I could at least have a bit of my grandfather with me.
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That evening the whole family (we are a very big family) went to St. Hubert which was my grandfather’s favorite restaurant. At the end of supper my uncle Ollie asked the waitress if he could take home two of the St. Hubert wine glasses since it was his deceased father’s favorite restaurant, the waitress said yes, so it wasn’t technically stealing.
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On the 2nd of January 2019 we had a little memorial for my grandfather in Southminster United Church. My father played the piano while my neighbor (who is actually the jazz pianists, Roland Hanna, son) sang. My mother and my aunt made a speech and then my brother, my friend and my brother’s friend played a piece on the violin, the recorder and the cello. That evening we had another family supper. I had a great time with my uncle, who also loves food!
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This summer my whole family will be going to Charlevoix, in Quebec, for the real funeral, where we will bury his ashes.
Author Notes: This probably isn't that good, they're just memories I wanted to keep somewhere I wouldn't lose them.
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Canada • 23 years old