My Grandfather Essay

533 Words3 Pages
My Grandfather It was a blistering summer day, one of those days when the air seems to stand still. In the back seat of our red Ford pickup, next to my sister and me, sat a cooler filled with icy water, soda and Capri Sun. In the front seat my grandmother sat passenger while my grandfather drove, sporting his traditional haying hat. My father and my uncle followed in the car behind us. After an hour or so of playing with my new Game Boy system and soaking up the air-conditioning, we finally reached our destination; the hayfield. Wearing tattered jeans, a cutoff t-shirt, and an old pair of Nikes, I jumped out of the pickup into the blazing heat. In the distance I could hear the rumbling of the baler headed to the lower field. I looked into the field to see not only heat waves, but row upon row of hay bales just waiting to be picked up one by one. It was time to get to work. I struggled to drag one at a time, while my grandfather, amazingly, carried two or three at a time. I remember thinking he was Superman because he could do anything, from lifting and stacking the bales to rebuilding a car. At the end of haying the brutal, merciless field, I complained about my aching body and sun burnt skin and said, “Never again.” Days like these were not my favorite, but I have come to miss them because they represent the last remaining memories of my grandfather in good health. From that day forward my grandfather’s health spiraled downward. The first warning sign came when we were cleaning the barn one day. He lost balance and fell down in one of the stalls. We all brushed it off as simple clumsiness; what we didn’t know was that arthritis had taken over his legs. The arthritis soon engrossed his body; it was past the point of no return. My once active, outgoing grandfather now had to use a wheelchair, be lifted and carried to use the bathroom, and be fed; he could do
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