Thursday, January 8, 2009
~ 5:48 PM ~
My Grandma
Hi! I was in America for a month during the school holidays. I would love to share my experiences in America, regardless of the ups and downs of it.
At first, we had no plans of going abroad. However, my mom received a call. After seeing her reaction, I knew it was bad news. Apparently, my Grandmother was very sick. She was fighting cancer. I was horrified by the bad news. My parents had a discussion and decided that we should visit her. I felt both sad and excited at the same time. Usually families would go to America for fun, joy and laughter. Sadly, my family would be visiting a sick relative... I really hoped she would be all right but having heard her conditions, i really doubted it. Despite this, my parents mentioned that we would have fun too. We would visit places like Disneyland, Waterworld, Legoland, Seaworld and more. I was glad to hear this. My parents took action immediately to ensure we would return before school starts. They used the computer to look for a suitable flight, but there were very few available. My parents managed to grab a flight to America from the China Airways. Although it would not be as comfortable as Singapore Airlines, it was cheap and easy. Besides, it was the only flight left that was suitable for us. The flight would take us to Shanghai first, then it would bring us to America. The flight time was 5 and 12 hours respectively. It would also return just before school starts.
The day of our flight came more quickly than I expected. We reached the airport a few hours before our flight. "Its going to be a long wait" I thought to myself. However, before I knew it, I was already on the plane getting ready for takeoff. I buckled up and waited patiently. The take off was comfortable and smooth. After reaching a certain altitude, we were allowed to move about. The flight was going to take 5 hours. I hoped that I would get bored to death. There were no electronice games like the planes in Singapore Airlines, but there were televisions at the front that screened movies once in awhile.
After five long hours, we touched down and reached Shanghai. We had to wait an entire day before our flight to America was ready, so my parents booked a hotel to sleep overnight. We immediately went to our hotel room to see how it looked like. It was presentable and comfortable. The view was amazing. We could see the beauty of China from up there.
After spending a night at the hotel, we checked out and headed to the airport for our flight to America. The procedure was similar and we were boarded quickly. The plane took off smoothly. I spent most of the 17 hours sleeping and doing my homework. Time passed by quickly and we landed before we knew it. We went though the immigration and we were greeted by my Aunt and Uncle. After hugs and kisses, we decided to head to our Aunt's home to store the luggages there. Since America was a very big place, the journey took about 2 hours. After we reached the house and stored the luggage, we went to the hospital to visit Grandma. Upon reaching there, we saw many of her friends and relatives. They were belated to see us as and were astonished that we came all the way from Singapore. Since Grandma was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), she could only hav three visitors at a time in order not to disturb her and the other patients. Me, my mom and my father went in first and had a few words with her. She was in bad condition. She was barely alive because the machine was pumping her heart. Without the machine, she would die. Tears rolled down my mom's cheeks. There was an awkward silence before my mom decided to say a few words to her. After that, we left the hospital for lunch.
This experience has made me realise that family is important. This is because we are important and we need people who we can trust and count on. Our siblings are supporters. They matter what we think and feel and nobody cares more about us than they do. Family is not only for our pleasure or entertainment but for all aspects of life: for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us apart We need a family and our family needs us. When we help and support our families, we find ourselves supported too.
