The past few weeks I have been having to say the hardest goodbye of my life from a distance of over 2000 miles and over the phone. Some of you reading may be wondering who this person was and why I would need to say goodbye. This person that deserved all of this adoration was my grandpa. The only one that had not passed already and who spent most of my time with in my teenage years. This goodbye was extremely hard to handle emotionally as I was the only one not able to be there during his final moments.
At the start of the race I knew my Grandpa Dave’s health was failing but thought I would be able to see him after I was finished with the race. In the first two months I would get updates from my parents like he was in the hospital for two days but would get released. This was a routine that was present for the last two years but he always seemed to pull through and get healthy again. The downfall in his health started about 2 days before we left to head to Nicaragua. My final conversation and goodbye with him was at this time as my mom made sure I was able to speak with him before we left Costa Rica. This ended up being the final time he was in the hospital and where he spent the last days of his life with family by his bedside.
The couple days before the trip began to Nicaragua I was in contact with my parents and they told me what he said to them that week. His words to them was, ”This is going to be my last winter.” At this point I knew something was wrong because normally he was a fighter during any of his other hospital visits. The next piece of information that I received showed that his health was extremely poor and that he maybe wouldn‘t make it through the end of the race. Through spotty WiFi on the bus to Nicaragua I received a message that he coded in the hospital and the family put him on DNR. The day after we arrived at the base my family called and also told me the severity of the past days and the plans to remove the drugs and machines the next day when all the family arrived. This night and the next days were the hardest on the race as I was only able to be present at his bedside via video call. The host at the base and my squad leaders made sure I was able to access WiFi and be there via technology during the moments everything was pulled from his body as the doctors gave him hours to live. I was able to see him a couple more times during the final week of his life even though he was unable to speak anymore.
It was about a week later on a Tuesday morning that I received word from Katie that he had passed peacefully that morning. I was then able to contact my family again and figure out plans on seeing his funeral as I would not be able to make the trip back to the states. The plans were a success and I was able to watch the funeral and graveside service from here in Nicarugua. I wanted to leave the family and friends of his with my memories about him, so i sent a letter listing these memories of him. One of my first blogs on the race was called “The Start of Many Goodbyes” which I didn’t know would include saying goodbye to my grandpa during the race.
If you want to read about all the amazing memories I have of my Grandpa just read the blog: Memories Of Grandpa, which I will post here shortly.
