Mary was nine at the time, very naive and full of innocence. Her life was normal, similar to most children her age. Life was good, until the unthinkable happened, her grandfather, Papa, was diagnosed with lung cancer. She was shocked, lost for words. When told he didn’t have very long to live, she didn’t want to believe it, even though she knew it was too late to cure. Mary asked herself, “How could this happen? What could have caused such a horrible disease?” She then realized it was from the cigarettes he smoked. It turned his lungs into dark lumps of nothing gasping for air. The diagnosis was a difficult thing to get used to. Not being able to do anything about it made everything much worse. Papa was even more distraught after hearing …show more content…
He was still very strong at this point, his energy invested into old western show reruns. When Mary visited him, he was more alive than ever, offering her lots of candy during every visit. A trip to the doctors had revealed that the chemo was still working, some of Papa’s cancer was disappearing. Mary was full of joy after hearing the splendid news, even though she knew that it would grow back quickly. He still continued his smoking habits, in fact it got worse as the cancer progressed. He used the cigarettes as a quick outlet to ease his pain, the worse the pain, the more he …show more content…
She wished that it was all just a horrible dream, that she would soon wake up and realize everything was all ok. Mary prayed for Papa every night, hoping that god would magically make his cancer disappear. She knew that at this point, Papa was in God’s hands. She knew that he wouldn’t live much longer, she just hoped that it was long enough to say goodbye. New years arrived quickly, Papa was getting more and more weak by the second. This was hard to wrap around Mary’s head. She couldn’t believe that just a few weeks prior he was much more energized. It was like the cancer hit him all at once with one big punch. Despite his weakness, he still continued to smoke. His body begged for mercy, but he didn’t listen. He had lost a lot of weight, he weighed around one hundred pounds at the time. He was a living skeleton, no meat on his body whatsoever. Just a few days later, Mary went to see him, you could see the look of death on his face. He was constantly coughing, it was so bad that he couldn’t even talk to her. He tried to speak, but words wouldn’t come. You could see the frustration he had with his body, but at the same time you could see the tiredness that lay in his