I was ten years old when I saw one of the most frightening sights of my life. I was at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, with my mom, my sister, and my grandmother. We were all gathered around my grandfather who was hooked up to numerous amounts of tubes, machines, and IV lines. My grandfather was in the middle of his fight against esophagus cancer and I remember thinking to myself, this is going to be one of the last times that I ever see my grandfather. The part that I did not take into consideration before that thought was; my grandfather has a fierce driving force to live deep down within him. No matter what obstacle is thrown in his way, it is not a question of whether he can get around it; he just wonders when he is going to conquer the problem.

A few months later, when my grandfather was at home recovering, my family and I would make daily trips over to see him, since we live about a two minute walk away from each other. The majority of the times we would go over to see him, there would be a visiting nurse taking care of him, he would be sleeping, or he would be in too much pain and agony that my mother would not want us to come inside and see him. But then there were the times that my grandfather and I would sit and watch the Red Sox or just talk about what’s going on hours after my family left.

Once summer time rolled around I was always over my grandparents house. I mowed their lawn and did small tasks that needed to be done around the yard. One day my grandfather came outside with me and I figured he was just supervising because I was working near a cluster of thorns. I didn’t notice the pair of clippers he was carrying. He told me that he was going to help me take down the vines that were strangling a group of trees. I was completely surprised and excited for us to be working together. From this moment on, every time I do a project at his house, he is right there next to me, even if he is sitting under a tree in the shade, while watching me work.

All of my aunts, uncles, and cousins often say that I am the one that keeps my grandfather going because he’s always outside doing something with me. I know that he is a fighter and will never give up on anything that gets in his way.