The Death Annoucement

It was a regular day; except for we had planned

to go camping that night. We were heading to my dad’s house to drop off our van. We then noticed my uncle Vaughan and uncle Dave standing in the driveway, and to just turn slightly there was a police officer just standing there. We all wondered what was happening? Was our father in trouble with the law? We were then rushed inside the house, where we sat with uncle Dave who would not tell us anything.

After being pushed in to the house we could hear our mother screaming and swearing we knew something was wrong. After about 5 minutes or so uncle Vaughan, Mom, Anna and the officer came in. Uncle Vaughan grabbed Jacobus and myself; Anna grabbed Laura while mom grabbed Jasperina. With uncle Dave rubbing mom’s back she tried to say what had happened but just couldn’t come out with it. Then Anna blurted it out. It was tragic. It wasn’t supposed to happen. It was no-ones fault, was it? Question’s and questions filled my mind. I wasn’t sure what to do. Everyone was crying, but I just kept thinking why? Why us we just lost our grandfather, didn’t god have enough from us? Why did he have to take him? Why couldn’t he take that man who has been on life-support for the last 3 months just going through pain? Why did he have to take my father? Why? Why, was the biggest question going through my head.

Just then I heard my youngest sister Jasperina say in a quiet but loud voice “I want grandma, I want to go to grandma’s” We then started to get up and move getting back in the van, with uncle Vaughan driving he took us to grandma’s house. Everyone stayed there for the weekend. It just seemed to be right having everyone in one house. We were all together trying to cope with the death. Everyone seemed to come and visit, all the family, friends, neighbours and more. The first visit was hard, but it was only the family so it made us even closer trying to fit everyone in such a small space.

We all went back to grandma’s house where the kids watched movies and played in the sunroom and the adults played cards. It was a long struggle to figure out where we could fit everyone, where to sleep was even a longer struggle. We all awoke the next morning where we dirtied every dish in the house trying to give out cereal, some of us just ended up with toast. It seemed normal until we thought about the two viewings we would have to go to later. The kids played outside and in the sunroom, while the adults had coffee and talked.

The afternoon viewing was pretty difficult, but we held up strong. I never thought that my father knew so many police officers. All the younger children had fun with the officers. While they ran around with there hats, handcuffed and setting off the sirens. The adults stood along the line of chairs where the shook everyone’s hand and just kept repeating the same thing again and again “Thank-you for Coming,