Welcome

Hello, and welcome to my blog! I'm not sure exactly what I'll be writing about, but with the project I've been working on for the past 7 months recently announced, I felt compelled to finally start one. Of course, it has taken me almost a week to get my blog up and running - more on that in future blog entries...

Serchie

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

"My dad died"

An anonymous Slink reader tells her story...

Life was going great! I had an amazing family, great friends, and I went to a good school.

My dad died of Cancer

I could never imagine that what happened in the year to come would be so terrifying.

I woke up one morning and the house was deathly quiet, even though it was a school day. I thought that I'd overslept so I rushed downstairs to see what was going on.

That was when I saw my mum and dad sat on the sofa looking at each other. mum told me to go and get my sister. When we sat down together on the couch, my dad started to cry.

The news was bad...


"I've got lung cancer" he said.

At first I didn't really understand what was going on but after having it explained to me, I started crying too.

There was a possibility that my dad could die. But I didn't think that would happen to us, dad was always so strong!

I just couldn't get my head round it. One of the hardest things was telling my best friend.

I burst into tears in her bedroom and couldn't stop crying for hours. Somehow, telling somebody else made it seem so much more real.

My dad went through chemotherapy and was very ill over it. I missed a lot of time off school, sometimes weeks at a time. My mum was in bits and I had to look after her.

“He was so weak”

After around 5 months, my dad had lost his hair. It was strange to see somebody so close to me this weak.

He started to have these fits. His left arm would uncontrollably spasm and the left side of his body would go weak.

One time we were all staying at my uncle's house and my dad had a fit in the bathroom. Luckily I didn't see it.

About two weeks later, my dad had another fit in front of me and my other sister. It was awful.

We were thrown out of the room by my mum and had to ring my other sister from upstairs and tell her not to go into the living room until dad was ok.

After a few months of radiotherapy, my mum and dad were called to the hospital to see the consultant.

Had the treatment worked?...


My sisters and I waited nervously at home. This was to see whether or not the radiotherapy was working or not.

After waiting for what seemed to be forever, the car pulled up the drive. They walked through the door and my dad started to cry. I knew that this couldn't be good news.

We found out that he had been immune to the radiotherapy and so the cancer had developed. He had been given a terrible choice. Either he could live for 2 months without any more chemotherapy, or live for 5 more months and have intensive chemotherapy.

Between us we decided not to take the chemotherapy because we didn't want him to be ill in the last few months of his life.

In the next few months of his life, we did everything together: going to football matches (Manchester United of course) to Alton towers (we went on every ride and we got to go in through the exits because my dad was "Disabled")

5 months had passed, a lot longer than he was expected to live, and my dad started to become really ill.

It was the end of April and my mum told me that my dad was going to stay at a hospice for a week or two and then he would be coming back home.

My dad died

After about 3 days, we went to see him. He looked so weak. The day after, my mum told us that the doctors thought that this was his last day to live and that we had to say goodbye.

Saying goodbye to my dad knowing that it would be forever was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. He wasn't awake when I was speaking to him. We had been told that he could hear what we were saying but couldn't respond.

The day after, I was at my nan's house with some of my family and my mum and sister were together somewhere else. I was waiting in my nan's living room when my uncle got a phone call. I knew that it would be about dad.

I was so confused...


I burst into tears. We got in the car and raced to the hospice, thinking my mum and sister were there.

My auntie was holding me tightly in the car, reminding me that she had hold of me and would never let me go.

We got to the hospice and my family were nowhere to be seen. Then we went back to my nan's house. They weren't there.

“He was so brave...”

Then, finally, we went back to my house. Stood in the doorway was my mum, arms wide open.

"dad's gone," she said. I ran into her arms and we both sobbed.

I was in such a mess! Then we had to face the funeral. My mum ran up to the coffin crying. It was so hard to see my mum like that. But we stood by each other and stayed strong.


The funeral was awful...


Everyone was there for him, and hearing them singing somehow made me stronger.

“Life is getting back on track...”

5th of May 2002 changed my life. I miss my dad so much but I know that good things always come from bad.

I still have my friends and family and life is getting back on track. I miss my dad so much but little things keep cropping up, just proving that he is watching over me.

He had told me that he would do and that he would be in my heart all the time. And he is. Always there. Everywhere. In everything I do.

He will always be with me.

I love you dad xxxx

No comments: