My TGS Family

“Girls, your grandfather is in the hospital and we don’t know why yet,” my mother told me. While I found out only four weeks ago, it feels like years have gone by. We thought it was nothing- he was 82 and gets sick every once and a while with pneumonia. 8 hours after he was in the hospital, he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. 24 hours later he was additionally diagnosed with aggressive sarcoma. 72 hours later he was yet again diagnosed with another disease: stage four bone cancer. In just three days I find out my grandfather is dying a quick death, suffering from three painful types of cancer that we were oblivious of for years.

It all happened so fast that I didn’t know what to do. I visited him every day from when he was put into the hospital until he passed in hospice care after 6 days. I had to stop all of my activities out of nowhere. I took time from sailing, work, and even This Girls Story. In fact, I took over a month away from TGS. 

Returning to my normal activities was really hard. My grieving days were often spent caring for my widowed grandmother and trying to alleviate all the stress I could for my father, as this was his father who passed. In a time when I was rushed back to work and athletic commitments, my family at This Girls Story was there for me. My team was there when my blog post time came up, my team was there for me when deadlines approached, and my team was there for me the second I said I couldn’t make a meeting. I have so much love and appreciation for my co-editors, mentors, and especially, Beth, the founder of TGS, for the compassion she fosters on the team.

Regardless of how cheesy this entire blog post is, I want to say thank you to everyone for their kindness towards me in a time where I needed it the most and found it the least. 

I miss my grandpa a lot and wish we had more time, but the graciousness of my sisters of TGS has helped bandage the hole my grandfather’s life on earth left.