My brother and I were born in Minnesota and just a few years later, we left my family and moved to Delaware. My Dad, Mom, brother and I all left to take care of my Great-Grandfather who has always lived in DE. That being said, the only blood related family we had in Delaware was my Dad’s grandfather. My other blood related family are scattered all around The United States including, New Hampshire, Minnestota, Arizona, California, and even outside the U.S., Australia. 

Since I was only 3 years old, it did not affect me as much as it could have if I were older. Just a couple of years later, my Great-Grandfather passed away. Of course, this broke our hearts but we had to move on. My Mom’s family lived in Arizona which we thought that it would be time to move to be with them since Delaware had nothing to offer for us anymore. Little did we know that only just a few years later, my Mom passed away unexpectedly. This made our lives change completely. The thought of even moving away didn’t even cross our minds. Even to this day, it has been very difficult to pick up our things and move away from my moms resting space.   

Growing up without a mom and being the only daughter in the family has been so hard on me. Since I was only six years old when this happened, I did not really understand the whole concept of death. I did not know that my mom wasn’t coming home; I didn’t understand what or where heaven was. I didn’t understand a lot of things, but now since I am older and twelve years later my perspective on things have changed in so many different ways. 

My love for God and the belief that God is real has grown over the past years though small coincidences that occur every now and then. The main thing that always seems to happen randomly but on special occasions is seeing a monarch butterfly. For example, on my day of junior and senior prom, as we are taking pictures outside my house one single butterfly passed us just around the same exact time each year. Small things like that might not seem important to other people, but it has left a big impact on me because it has told me that my Mom is always around no matter what. Losing my Mom and Great-Grandfather has been hard on me and my family, but it made me have a better understanding and outlook on life. I’ve learned that even though people aren’t present in our lives as we wish them to, little do we know that they are always thinking about and looking over us.