Today me and my father went to pick up my grandfather for eating an ice-cream at our home. My grandfather is a really nice guy: he’s the kind of guy who’d bake pancakes or pies if he receives visitors. He has the respectable age of 95 and is a WWII veteran . My dad visits my grandfather twice a week, I try to do so every Sunday. Since he has a sweet tooth, we go and eat ice-cream allot during the weekends.
This Sunday, that is no different. We go to his house, have a little shit-chat inside, he changes into his good clothes to get outside, and then go outside to get some ice-cream. My dad gets into my grandfather’s car which is parked a bit further away, in order to move it closer so that my grandfather doesn’t need to walk that far to get into the passenger seat. The car is only parked like 15 meters away from the front door, so it’s not really a big deal.
As my father is driving the car backwards, my grandfather suddenly collapses. He doesn’t give a sound he just drops on the sidewalk with his eyes closed and not breathing. We instantly called the emergency services, and gave him a heart massage. Aside from one little cough after a minute or so, he did not make a single sound. The emergency services tried to reanimate him, in vain.
The effect of being powerless at such moment is indescribable. He was in good health and did not have any known problems. I’m not as much in shock that he is no longer with us, then I am that he just dropped dead like a lifeless puppet. One minute your are talking to him, going for an ice-cream and while you are waiting for a car to get nearer, he just drops dead on the spot. Me and my dad are tough guys, but we haven’t cried as much as today I think.
He was a good man, who’s time had come on this planet. But, darn, having someone dying in your arms is quite a shocking experience .
His stuff that we got back from the hospital. Notice how his watch is already set on the summertime ..