My Uncle & I

               Sometimes I wish that we didn’t have to get people taken away from us. Like why does a person life have to end before that person even knows it, or could at least say goodbye the correct way. Having to loose someone really close to you is really deep and it feels like a part of you was just ripped out and taken away from you forever. No one will ever understand. You’ll never know when it’s time to say goodbye for good.

At a young age you don’t know or understand anything that has to do with the word “death”. Being young you worry about having a childhood, playing in the sand, having fun on the swings not caring about anything or what can actually happen in a blink of an eye. Life as a youngster you will always have that one person or people you would look up to. As a kid you always have a best friend regardless if this friend is older then you, younger, and or even an imaginary friend in your life. I know a little girl that lost a person that was really close to her as she was growing up. She had this special someone that was always there for her that she looked up to as a 2nd father figure. This little girl knew that if something was wrong she had this someone she could go to no matter what. She had someone that wouldn’t leave her side. Not knowing what’s going on she thought everything was perfect. All she saw in her eyes was sunshine and happiness. This little girl I speak of was me. When I was a little girl like the age of 9, I had an uncle named Martin. He was the brightest, smart, caring, and energetic man I knew. My uncle was a father of 5 kids. He would do anything to keep his family protected, and stabled. He would do anything and everything to have food on the table for his kids and wife. My uncle was a very hardworking man. I would've never thought anything would go wrong with him. He never let us down. When I was a little girl, he would treat me like one of his own children. Wherever we would go, we would always have fun. He used to take me and his 2 sons out to the park, out for ice cream or even to go eat. We would go out to explore Kansas City. He would take us to many different sites around KC. I would always go to him if I ever needed anything and I didn’t want to tell anyone else what was going on. Yeah I had a father of my own, he was there when I needed him to, but he just wasn’t there all the time because he would always be working and when he would get off he wouldn’t want to do anything, so over the years I got more attached to my uncle Martin.

After a while years past by and my uncle wasn’t acting the same, he wasn’t the same man he was before. I would notice him being different. My uncle wasn’t as energetic; he didn’t want to do anything anymore. I would ask but no one would tell me what was going on, my uncle started looking really sick. He was pale, he started to get really skinny and he was going bald. Being the age I was I didn’t know about cancer or any other kind of disease. Honestly I thought he was fine and it was nothing serious. Months past and my uncle was looking worse and worse. I’m still clueless about what going on no one ever wanted to let me know what was going on either. My uncle, my aunt, and there kids all moved away. They left to Texas to live. October of 2003 my dad got a phone call and he spoke to who ever called. When he got off the phone he spoke to my mom and later he started packing some clothes in a suitcase and he left. The phone call he got was to inform him that my uncle was in the hospital. My dad and my uncle were really close.  My dad was on his way to Texas and I’m still without any idea of what’s going on. Like a week or two passed and my dad returned from Texas. He didn’t come home alone like he left, he came back with my aunt and her kids. The only one missing was my uncle so I had to ask for him. That’s when I got the news, my father told me “Mija, your uncle passed away from Cancer.” The news hit me bad I didn’t know what to think or how to react. I didn’t even get to go to his funeral. I was so upset, they knew I was like his daughter they could of at least let me know what was going on that way I wouldn’t be so hurt about it. Every now and then when we go to Texas my parents always argue with me about taking me to his grave, the first time I went, I broke down and almost passed out from all the crying I did. My father told me that he had to carry me back to the truck because I didn’t want to leave and I was so weak. As I got older I understood more and more about that fact we he was taken away from us. I really wish I could have done something to save him. If there was anything I could do I would’ve.

Until this day I haven’t gotten over the fact that my uncles gone and he’s not coming back. But I have to accept the fact that he’s in a better place and I know he’s looking down over me and the rest of the family from heaven. I love my uncle Martin and he will always be missed. One day we will be united as a family again.