My Significant Person Blog

    I woke up one random summer morning. I checked the forecast, raining all day. The past week I had been waking up early and going on hikes with my grandmother. Despite the cold and depressing weather, I opened my messages to see my grandma urging me to not break our streak. Convinced, I got dressed in my hiking attire, but, unlike the other days I had decided to add a windbreaker. I got in my car and drove to pick up my grandma to bring us to our usual hiking trail. As she walked outside her house, she was dressed similarly to me, long pants, rain jacket, and hood up to protect her hair. She was carrying a specially knitted water bottle holder.

     When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to see only one other car besides ours at the trails entrance. We began on the same path we always took. The rain was coming down harder than I originally anticipated and, unbeknownst to me, windbreakers are not the same thing as rain jackets; so my clothes quickly became soaked. Halfway finished with our hike, we stumbled upon an old dead tree sprouting mushrooms. My grandma plucked one right off the tree to examine it, after giving it a thorough inspection, she handed it off to me. It was about the size of my hand and had the coloring of a brown rainbow.  It was gorgeous!

     "Do you know what kind of mushroom this is?" I asked in excitement. My grandma, an unestablished botanist, who had been gardening ever since I could remember, whipped out her phone. I looked at her knowingly.

     "I'm not sure, but I'll send a picture to a foraging group I'm in on Facebook, they should know." She was also apart of a Facebook group for native and endangered plants which she often refenced whenever we went on our hikes, to see what we could and could not take. She started walking once again and I put the mushroom back next to the tree. Even in the rain with soaking wet clothes I still enjoyed my hike because I was in the presence of one of my favorite people. 

    Reminiscing on that memory just reminds me of how much she actually means to me, how much she does for me, and what a kind and loving person she is.  I remember another significant event that had to do with my grandma going back to when I returned after finishing my freshman year of college

    I walked in through the familiar doors of the house that I had lived in for around two years I walked up the creaky wooden stairs and turned into the first doorway on the left. My mother‘s office. I sat down in her empty office chair and waited for her. I had just drove four hours from Pennsylvania to Connecticut, my home state. I was tired but eager to see my family after months of absence. My mother walked in with her usual attire on, hair in a bun, yoga pants, and a zip up jacket. She sat in the blue and white floral chair in the corner of the room facing me. 

    

    “We have to talk.” she said seriously. I already knew something was the matter just by the tone of her voice my mother is always joking, especially with me.

    “Oh no,” I said “What happened?” A pit in my stomach was starting to grow.

    “While you were at school nana went to the doctors and they found an add normality in her breast tissue. She had her breast removed and is currently recovering. She’s cancer free but she definitely needs support right now.” she finished.

        I’m already crying by the time I hear “Nana.”

        “When did this happen?” I said wiping my tears. “Why did no one tell me?” 

        My mom was holding her composure together and calmly explained “She didn’t want you to worry about you were at school, she wanted you to focus on your studies while she got better.” 

    Every time I relive that moment I go back-and-forth debating whether or not I would have wanted to be four hours away and received a call that my grandma was sick. Yes I was confused and upset but I think that was just my grandma‘s way of showing me she cares and she loves me. My grandma has and always will be one of my closest friends and biggest supporters. I can’t imagine being where I am now in life without her.