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I remember my grampa (mom's side). We weren't super close but you know, we always saw eye to eye and he was a good person.

He use to be a smoker, and I believe he worked in a dusty factory at some point which is likely how he was eventually diagnosed with some sort of pneumonia / lung disease. He was OK for a while, but had to take oxygen. As the years went on, the concentration he needed went higher and higher until the point where he was breathing almost pure oxygen and his body was still not getting enough. After that, every now and then, he would take a nap and couldn't be woken up. After a few times, this meant he had to stay at the hospital.

My grandma was constantly at the hospital with him since we knew his time was close. My mom would visit almost every day as well. While at the hospital, my grampa became unconscious again, and the doctors told us that he wouldn't make it through the night. I'm not a religious man, but it was the first time I had asked the powers above for something worthwhile. What I asked for was for more time. Whether it was divine intervention or not, it didn't matter. I got exactly what I asked for and was grateful for it.

The next day, miraculously, my grampa was awake again. My family and I went to visit and spend what quality time that was left with him (as best we could in a hospital). They mostly chatted about who knows what. I assume it had to do with loose ends and such. We went home afterwards but my grandma stayed at the hospital.

You can only ask god for so much, and curing his illness at his age and condition? I'm sure it's not something god would do for anyone, whether he could do it or not. It was that night in the early AM hours when our phone rang. It was someone from the hospital telling my parents to go to the hospital immediately because my grampa was about to pass. My mom, dad, uncle, and aunt all rushed to the hospital to be there for the final moments. I stayed home for this one.

Later, my parents came back and they had told me what happened. They went back to bed, but my mom was still crying at the time. I stayed up a while longer in the living room, shedding a few tears and reminiscing about the past.

While I was sitting in the living room that night, it was what happened next that I will never forget. My mom had come out of her room a while later and saw me still there. She came over to me and told me how she just had a horrible dream where her dad had passed away. She then asked me if it was true and that it actually happened. I told her it was true, and all she did was nod silently before going back to bed. I guess it was so much for her to take that she just suppressed the memory of it happening. I'm sure deep down, she knew but just didn't want to believe it or else she wouldn't have asked me to confirm.

My grampa and I never really spent much time together, but I still distinctly remember being with my grampa at his work place that one time. It was just my grampa, my brother, and myself when I was really young. I can't remember much of what happened that day except for eating a whole lot of grape gummies. I think they were Kasugai Grape gummies, the individually wrapped ones. I still think of my grampa when I see a package of those gummies at the Asian grocery stores. There is a small shrine set up at my grandma's place with his picture. It's one of those things Asian families do, so we have a place to pay our respects during the Chinese new year and stuff like that.

Some time ago when I was over at the shrine, I snuck one of those gummies into the rest of the fruit that was left as an offering. I wonder if he would remember if he saw it.