"Daniel! Daniel!" I woke up on the first yell, I ran out of my room and into the kitchen, my mom and my Tia Elda were running around the house, I remember that the house smelled like Guayabas, We had been in that house for over a year and we knew that around the beginning of fall the avocados and guayabas in our back yard are in full harvest. "Despiertate Daniel!" "Mama!" and i was in the kitchen staring at the guayabas in disbelief, i snapped out of it and went into my gradmas room, I forget who asked me to call an ambulance but i did, by this point we had a nurse on call for about 2 or 3 days. We couldn't call 911 because it wasnt part of the contract. I called the operator and urgently asked her to send an ambulance, she said "what's happening?" It was at the very second that i finished my phrase that I actually realized what was happening right before me, "My Gradma is dying!! PLEASE SEND AN AMBULANCE!!" the operator said, "Is this the moment you've been waiting for?" I said ....yes. She said, "then I'm very sorry but the only thing i can recommend is that you be by her side, there's nothing else that we can do, I'll send an ambulance right away" I hung up the phone, my Tia Rosa asked what the nurse had told me and i told her. By this time my mom and my two tias were already by her side, "the operator said to just be by her side, the ambulance is on its way" tears filled the room, silent tears, with child like moans, prayers. My mom touched her mothers forehead one last time and said a final prayer in tears, "Grant me the strength to be a woman like you..." My tias tears were more silent, quiet whimpers, she was turning yellow, her moans were growing more and more quiet. Everything that I'd ever wanted to tell her in life I did, not at that point, but through out the life long relationship I had with her leading up to that moment. There were no apologies said, for there were no apologies to be made, by anyone. I held held my grandmothers hand and felt the warmth that was leaving her body. I was crying, thanking her for life, for everything, my matriarch. I looked up and in the four corners of the rafters in her room saw creatures with wings overseeing our tears in wonder and astonishment. She was cold, I closed her eyes, she was with papa Diosito. I let go of her cold hand, tears still running down my face, it was the beginning of fall and the house smelled of guayabas, I walked outside of the house alone, the sun wasn't out yet, I sat in the porch and stared at the moon talking to my grandma, thanking her one last time in tears. by this time my uncles and aunts were arriving and the sun was coming out, one of my uncles walked up to me and hugged me, in the background I heard his wife whisper to him, "leave him alone let him be with his grandma" it was then and there that I lost fear because I felt a shield over me that would protect me until my last breath, and no one in this world can do me harm and death is natural and I am not afraid. Now, she is back in the clouds, my matriarch, my chaparrita, my heart, see you when I get there.
