Virginia Allen
I saw in my grandmother’s face that she only had a short time to live. My mom told me nothing. Virginia Allen, my Great Grandma, passed when she was 75 years old. She died of cancer, she was sick for a long time, she did not want to let us know she was taking medicine
My Grandma was really close to me. She was there for me, she was there for everybody. She used to live with me. She used to cook macaroni and cheese. She would take me to the grocery store with her. On special times she would take us out to eat.
It happened a month before we were going back to school. Maybe August. It was real hot outside. She died at Rush Hospital by Cook County. She was in the hospital a week before she passed. My mama used to take me to see her every day.
I remember seeing a black circle on her chest by her heart, where the cancer was and she had IV’s in her hands. She was also hooked up to life support machines before she died. When they unplugged it she died. Half of us were in the room when we took her off life support. She was in a coma.
It was stinking like some shit and pee in the room. There were 4 beds with two people in the room and the lady next to her could not walk and she passed by herself.
The nurses told us say something, she can hear you. Everybody was saying stuff like ma we’re going to be there for the family. That we love you. Then they told the kids to get out of the room and they started saying something. We kids just got to crying and left. We went home and called my granddaddy who lived in Florida, and told my granddaddy that we pulled the plug.
The funeral was way out south somewhere. My granddame was a Jehovah Witness. That’s who come to the funeral, and then my cousin sang “It’s so hard to say goodbye”.
My cousin, Laura Weathers helped me get through this experience. She helped all of us stay strong by being there for us. She was coming to get us every day, and doing stuff with us that my grandma used to do.
My grandma’s sister was mean to me because she would say everybody get out when she was crying. That was only for one month.
