The toy car

A lesson I learned when I was younger was about being grateful and appreciative towards my family because you never know what might happen I learned this from losing my great grandfather he was around 80 years old, 5’10, bald on the top of his head but had thin white hair on the sides, and he also wore glasses. I had gone to Home Depot with my great-grandfather and asked him for a toy” Hey Pépère’ can I get this orange car?” he told me no to the toy and I was young so I was very upset about this and overreacted. I had said some very mean things to him that I don’t mean anymore but at the moment I meant everything I had said to him I don’t remember exactly what I said to him because I was only six years old but there was one thing that I do remember saying to him was that I wish I would never see him again and that I wished he would just disappear. I had even prayed that night that he would just go away forever.

The next day was normal nothing unusual or out of place until my great-grandmother was making food and she couldn’t find my great-grandfather so she went around everywhere looking for him and yelling his name he was also hard of hearing so she didn’t think anything too bad just that he didn’t hear her. I was just running around outside playing while all of this was going on and at their house, they had a massive tree with a bench in front of it and I don’t remember exactly what had happened but I do remember the neighbors coming over and they kept saying how sorry they were for me and what had happened I was so lost and confused and nobody would tell me what was going on and then an ambulance had shown up and I was young so I didn’t really understand what happened yet. My great-grandfather passed away that day. He was like a father to me growing up so I have always blamed myself for his passing and I feel like if it weren’t for what I had said that night he would still be here.

Every day for years I would blame myself for his passing away. I had to go to therapy for a couple of years to help cope with what had happened because we were so close. Every little thing would remind me of him and I would start to cry over the smallest things. I think one of the biggest takeaways I have from this experience of losing my great grandfather is to never take people for granted and always treat everyone with kindness the best that you can. This really changed my life and I now try my best to not say anything hateful to people I care about because you never know what could happen to them and I don’t want the last thing I said to someone I cared about to be mean. I feel like this experience no matter how horrible it was for me has taught me how to be an overall better person every day and it’s really resonated with me

“Dukes of Hazzard Toy Car” by TireZoo is licensed under CC BY 2.0.