On April 1st 2017, As we were enjoying a nice breakfast in the back of the ship, my dad said something that would change my life forever. It was a cool crisp morning breeze that fell upon the ship. Everyone was up and excited. It was the last day on the ship, men and women were laughing and playing games. As we headed to the back of the ship we collected my grandparents who were joining us for breakfast. I was 10 at the time. I didn't really think much about what I had versus what others had. I just focused on my life and didn't really pay much attention to others. At that moment I thought of my grandma. I thought how she had been going through a really hard time battling Alzheimer's for over 5 years now. I realized how I had treated her wasn't right. I acted like I didn't care. I thought about how it would be gone soon. I imagined she would go back to normal and that's what I wanted, but I was afraid that wouldn't be true.

When we got to the back of the ship we got in line to get food. I got an egg sandwich, a donut and orange juice. While we were eating my dad looked over at his phone, he had a dull pale look on his face. Something felt wrong. I felt like something was missing. Like something bad had just happened, but I didn't know what. I grabbed my frost coated Orange juice. I popped open the lid and the burst of juicy flavors had a party in my taste buds. As we were eating he said he had some big news and that we should sit down for it. He started talking and I sunk my teeth into my sandwich right before he told us what happened and I drifted off.

I didn't know how long I had drifted off for. It was like I was dreaming, but I could hear everything I thought of. Then suddenly my eyes burned and stung really bad like 1000 bees were stinging my eyes. As I opened my eyes I looked around. I was in a big dark room with one light in the sky that looked light years away. It smelled beautiful, it smelled like all the baking factories were cooking. My voice echoed. I saw one other person there, I walked up to them. As I got there I realized who it was. It was my grandma. I was confused where I was and what she was there for. I couldn't ask her where we were because she had Alzheimer's and most definitely was as confused as I was. Then she started to move. Not like walking but like floating toward the light. My heart started pounding. I heard a voice call out for my grandma. I started screaming. I started running, but it was useless. She disappeared into the light. Right then I snapped out of it.

My dad said “Your grandma passed away this morning.” 

That's when I realized I was crying. I thought of all the fun things we did together. The funny times she made me laugh. Then I thought of when I saw her last. The last time I saw her was in a hallucination. From that day on I came to realize how fortunate I was. How I had parents who were still together. I had a roof over my head. Food on the table and a clean water source. I realized how I have all of these things and not everyone does. So I was still very sad my grandma passed, but it made me realize how fortunate I really was and that I need to cherish the things I have and not take them for granted.