The wind rushing through my hair. My heart pumping 5 miles a minute. All I could think is no he can’t be gone.

It was a Saturday morning and the sun was just coming up over the rolling hills. The chill of the cool morning was beginning to fade away.

Earl and I were climbing this really big hill when my mom’s boyfriend got the call that he was gone. It was as if the world had stop moving, there weren’t any noises, the birds stopped chirping and the wind had died. Earl was yelling at me saying “are you ok?” I said “Yeah, I am fine.” I instantly started balling. It was hard to ride a bike while crying because my vision was blurry. Earl on the other hand he was riding the bike like a pro. So when we got to the house we ghosted our bikes into the corn field. Blasted through the door. BANG!!!!! There goes the door handle through the wall. There were like 20 people in the kitchen and they tried so hard to keep us from going and seeing him but we blew past them. When we entered the room there he was lying motionless. I was waiting for him to say something, no, wait I was praying for him to say something.

I was praying and wondering, how could he just leave like that? I had so many questions left to ask. Normally when we would walk in the living room he would say “Did you see those darn hidebehinds?” or “How about some westerns?” That night Earl and I went into Earl’s room and we cried. If you knew Earl, then you would know that he doesn’t let people see how he feels, except when he is with me. So we cried and kept thinking, what are we gonna do without him. He was crazy but he was the best role model on the planet Earth. He taught us so many helpful things, like “happy wife, happy life” or “treat others the way you wish to be treated.” The best thing that he said was “ watch out for hidebehinds.” Most people would say watch out for the boogy man, or the dog man, but do you want to know something? He isn’t like most people because he is his own person. If you met this guy
then you would understand why I cried. It isn’t because he is my grandpa, it is mostly because he was
like my brother or my dad. There are approximately 7.125 billion people in the world and no one is like
him. He is the best person ever.

“Treat people the way you wish to be treated.” Edward G. Seeley