Four years ago, my family received a call from Mexico; it was my aunt saying that my paternal grandfather was very ill. The call shocked the entire family and left us speechless because my grandfather was in perfect condition the week before. After the call, we packed our stuff for a few days and left immediately. Once we arrived I personally was horrified in what I saw. My grandfather was not the tall, strong man, always laughing and smiling, but was now so skinny he couldn’t walk. My family was there for four days and we had to come back to finish the school year. The last day we were in México we were packing and getting the trucks ready to leave at midnight when all of a sudden my aunts started screaming “no, no, no.” That’s when it hit me – my grandfather was dying, and sure enough he did die.

During the whole time all that was going on, the neighbors were coming in the house asking what they could do to help. After an hour people were at the house with flowers, bread, coffee, and all kinds of food.  This is like a tradition people do as an act of kindness and for the family to give thanks to all the neighbors who had helped the family in any way.  All this was surprising to me because it was the first time I had experienced a death in my family. I saw so much kindness by the neighbors and even by other people in different cities who came to see the family.

Gabriela
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