GONE

My granddad used to be my best friend until he passed away two years ago. I was acting all tough the day of the burial but couldn't hold back my tears when he was carried six feet below. I could remember his smile, his advice, and his protection, even though he was blind.

My grandma died before I could even get a chance to see her, so my grandpa married her friend, thinking that since my grandma is the best, her friend would have the same quality, but she was a wolf in a sheep's skin.

My stepgrandma came in with a selfish interest, not thinking of taking care of the seven little kids my late grandma left behind; she gave birth to five kids in addition to the two she came with from her failed marriage.

At first, everything was going well, though she pretended to take care of the seven kids my grandma left behind, suffering in the absence of my grandpa until my grandpa got sick and blind. My grandfather wasn't able to go to work. Though at that time everyone was grown up and had left home,

ALONE WITH THE WOLF

I call her that because she pretends to be good wherever we are, and if we change, she turns back to her normal routine of tormenting my grandfather.

My grandfather's children live far away from our home town, so we do make the two-day trip every two years to visit the old man.

My grandfather will complain to me about how the woman treats him, which is horrible, but if the woman is around, he will heap praise on her. The heartbreaking part is that the woman always leaves early in the morning to go to the farm, giving the blind food to eat until she comes back by noon before she prepares something for him to eat, leaving the man to do things by himself.
We employed someone to bring food to the Old blind man every day, but the woman complained to the elders that someone was trying to take her husband away from her. The woman stopped bringing food to my grandfather, and my father tried to convince her to come back, but to no avail.

MEMORY
I Could remember sitting at his table, facing him, as he gave me advice. What I truly learned from him is "never to make a decision or take a step while desperate." My grandfather rushed into that marriage just to find someone to take care of my father and my uncles and aunts at their tender ages, not knowing he had made the wrong call.

I can't still remember how he died a painful death. The woman left him for two good days without food or water; she did not check on him. He was lying on the floor for those days; it was a neighbor who suspected something was wrong because my grandfather comes every day to enjoy the heat of the sun.

So she went in, calling out his name as she walked into the house. She saw him laying on the floor, surviving. She shouted and called my dad, who was still at work. My Dad drove as fast as he could down to our home town, and then he had words with me before he took his last breath.

I just missed him; I don't even have a reason to travel to our home town. Everything will be boring without him around, his calling out our names to close the doors before going to our room, calling a roll call off hand to see if everyone is back home. I just missed him.

Before he died, he gave me some of his tools, which I will need. I truly appreciate and love them. I always use them to remember him.