Growing up, I was extremely close to my parents and grandparents. My father and maternal grandmother in particular were my confidants. While attending a church service on the second of June 2010, my grandmother left service to gather groceries for dinner. I was listening to the sermon when my praise dance instructor retrieved my cousin and I to inform us that our grandmother had fallen out in the store. Through my tears, I remained hopeful that this was an easy fix sort of problem. After about a week and multiple tests, it was confirmed as terminal cancer.
A few short months later while sitting in my grandmother’s hospital room, I received a call from her doctor. “We’re going to give her about six months to live,” then the phone went silent and she hung up. Where she said six months, God gave us six beautifully trying years.
The first Thanksgiving was hard because we didn’t have the glue that held us together and my father had relapsed in his drug addiction. My mother and I felt alone, but the Holy Spirit always comforted us. After a six year cancer battle with my grandmother and a seven year addiction battle with my father, hope seemed lost. Until God called me by name to be comforted by Him and the people He sent to rebuild my hope and faith in His plan.
My family is stronger than ever and we all work to be the glue, through God to stay close to one another. We even started our own new family tradition. My father is now seven years sober and our relationship is stronger than ever. God created a new life for us and restored everything we lost.