Grandpa just passed away after two weeks in hospice care
My grandpa just passed away a little over 12 hours ago. I live very far away from him, and I wasn’t able to be there. My mom’s been there for him every second since he was put on hospice, though. He was formally diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in the summer of 2021, but we believe that he’d been struggling for quite a while before that.
My grandpa has always been larger than life, and one of my absolute favorite people in the world. It feels so surreal to know that he’s gone, and that I’ll never again hear the cheerful way he answered his phone, almost right up until the end. All I can think about right now is how much I’m gonna miss him for the rest of my life.
I got to FaceTime him on Wednesday, which was coincidentally the last day he was conscious. I feel so lucky that I got that chance to speak with him, even though the call was very brief. At the end, he knew who I am. I feel like I’ve been silently grieving him for years. I didn’t know how I was going to feel when he passed, but these last two weeks have been agonizing. I’m just trying to remind myself of the amazing life he lived.