Heaven Has a New Hero

Heaven Has a New Hero(Rorie Holt) Heaven Has a New Hero

His breaths were growing shorter and faster. Everyone sat in disbelief, it was hard to accept the fact that our beloved Grand-daddy would no longer be with us. The walls in his room at the hospice house were dull and dreary, but with the pictures displayed on the shelves it had a home like touch. My mother and her three sisters sat on either side of their father each taking turns holding his hands, while the rest of us lined the walls of his room. Grand-daddy was unable to speak. The only sound we heard was his breathing. He lay in bed motionless, his undernourished body reminding me of a pale fragile doll I once had as a kid. I sat gazing at the man I thought of as my hero. I remembered how he used to attend my swim meets, to cheer me on when my parents could not make it. The depressing environment had become too much for me to handle, so I got up and walked outside.

I passed the doctor on my way out, he too looked gaunt. You could tell he had not slept much. His eyes were sunken, his deathlike skin could use a bit of sunlight. The doctor looked at me and flashed a smile. I could tell he was trying to be nice, even though we both knew he did not want to be there. When he walked into the room, Aunt Deb stood up to shake his hand. She was the oldest of the four girls, her salt ‘n’ pepper hair thrown up in a bun, and her clothes all wrinkled. I already knew what the doctor was going to say, the same thing he had been saying for the last four days. “It’s only a matter of time. I’ll give him another 24 - 48 hours”. I could hear the doctor’s deep and raspy voice as I replayed the words in my head.

After the doctor left I walked back inside. It was late, so everyone had dispersed. Some family members went home while the rest of us crashed in different parts of the Hospice House. In the early hours of the morning I heard a faint noise come from Grand-daddy’s room, so I got off the couch and went in. Aunt Deb was sitting in the chair crying. She looked up at me and invited me to sit on her lap just like when I was a little girl. We sat in silence as we watched Grand-daddy sleep. He began to wheeze like an asthmatic in need of an inhaler. We both knew what was coming next. Grand-daddy stopped wheezing for a minute, then he took his last breath. I got up and kissed his cheek, then looked at Aunt Deb and said, “The Angels are rejoicing with tears of happiness….Heaven has a new hero."