When I was eight my life changed forever. Scared, alone. Empty, and sad, my dad weeps in his room, with my mom by his side. We did everything together we hunted, he was my coach when I played baseball and football. He was my best friend. My dad is the bravest person I knew, he went through a really rough time because he thought that he wasn’t supporting for me my mom and my brother, but really he was doing more than that. He was showing me how to be a man how to go through things with your family. That day my dad was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer.

As time went on things started to get a little better but my dad was still really weak. Eventually going to the mayo clinic was a routine. The ride there was the worst, not knowing what he was going to look like. If he was going to be doing really good or doing really bad. One time we got there and in the middle of the night he started to have a really bad gag reflex. The doctors came and got him and gave him an IV to go to sleep so they could put a tube down his throat, I watched them do all that it looked so painful I didn’t want my best friend going through something like that. Driving to the clinic was a 12 hour drive but it was worth it to see him. When we were at the clinic we always swam in the pool because my dad’s stomach didn’t hurt when he was in the water.

The doctors and nurses were always so nice. I knew it was getting bad when my dad weighed 110 pound and originally he weighed 208. The doctors called and said that they were on their way that they had great news. When they came in the room I was so anxious to hear what the news was. They came in the room and said that my dad was cancer free. I was the happiest person alive, we all were. They said that there was no signs of cancer in the last four cat scans. We finally got to go home. When we got home everything was great. The doctors came by once in a while to see how he was doing, he still had to rest a lot though. He had to go back every six weeks to be sure it was gone. When I was 11 my dad sat me and my brother down. He looked like there was no tomorrow. He started to talk but he was crying so I couldn’t understand him. He reached over and grabbed our hands and squeeze as hard as he could. My mom was sitting next to us, she had her arms wrapped around both of us. Then he told me and my brother that the doctors said the cancer was back and spreading faster than before, but that wasn’t even the worst news, the doctors also said that he only had four months to live. I had no idea how to think about this but I was old enough to know how to feel.

After that day we all acted like we didn’t know the truth. We had in our heads that he was going to make it but the truth was that he wasn’t. At this time three months later school had ended summer was here, but this was the worst summer that had to come. My birthday was coming up. My mom and dad wanted to celebrate it before he passed away. We had my birthday party on July 7, 2007 and it was fun but the next day my aunt came and got me and took me to my parent’s room. I walked in and I was standing there a helpless 11 year old watching the most important person take his last breaths. Then I watched as the last breath of air went through his mouth. It looked so peaceful, but it wasn’t right. That day was the worst day of my life but my dad taught me to never sit and dwell on the past and don’t only think of the future but live for today.