When you’re young, your life is built like a house of cards. Your parents and close family are the base cards that support all your decisions that eventually lead to the building of an entire house of friends and a family of your own.

These are the days my house of cards came tumbling down.

I was nine years old at the time. I was sitting with my dad, who had been battling cancer for over three years, when my grandma asked for my brother and me to follow her to her room. She asked us to sit, grief obvious in her voice.

“The nurse who comes and checks up on Daddy, and I were talking. She told me,” her breath hitches, “that, uh, it’d be a miracle if he saw today next week.”

I hadn’t fully understood the severity of my dad’s condition. I sat dumbfounded while she pulled my brother and me into a tight hug, hiding her face into our shoulders. We hugged her back with our free arm and sat there for a few minutes understanding in the information. My brother had begun crying with my grandma, understanding the situation more than I. I had thought he’d be fine, that he’d make it and we’d all be okay.

The days pass and I came home from school as always to see him in his final hospital bed, the one we had put in my grandma’s living room. He was diminishing quickly but that didn’t stop him from letting his personality shine though. He’d act just the same and no matter who was talking to him he’d have them laughing within minutes. He’d tell jokes or add clever comments to lighten the mood. There were quite a few people who had stopped by to see him—some friends but most were family, especially in the week that my grandma had told me he wouldn’t make it.

On Saturday, May 10th 2008, I was outside with the many children of my family, enjoying the late spring weather as children my age would. We would swing on the tire swing, jump on the trampoline…the older children would sit and chat. While I was in the middle of some imagination game, my mom and other grandma pulled up the driveway. The atmosphere dropped immediately once my mom ran to me asking if I was okay.

My dad had lost the battle to cancer and my house of cards had tumbled down.