Love is hard. Being completely and totally willing to give up your time and energy to care for someone else is harder. Being a caregiver to a person nearing the end of their life is probably the biggest emotional roller coaster anyone could ever go through. On one hand, you are terribly sad that they are going through what they’re going through, but on the other hand, you are so excited and happy to see that person when you’re there; especially if it is someone that you love dearly. For me, I was given this once in a lifetime experience the summer before my junior year of high school. I was only 16 years old.

My Abuelito was the greatest man I ever knew. He was kind, loving, and quirky. A Cuban native, my great grandfather and his wife sent their three children on a plane to the United States when Fidel Castro overtook the country. Catholic and very proud of it, he was the man that led us all in our faith. This man was the epitome of brave and faithful. Somehow, I got to grow up around him, like my mother and grandmother did before me.

About a decade before his passing, Abuelito was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia, a disease that was a combination of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. After his disease progressed over the years, he finally moved into my grandparents’ basement and became bedridden. There, I was given the opportunity to care for him. So, I became one of his nurses while he was on hospice care. I changed diapers, fed him, helped him with his exercises, got him in and out of bed, and just spent time talking with him and watching TV beside him. At the end he’d never respond, but I knew that there would never be a day that my great grandfather wouldn’t be there for me. I can proudly say that I took care of my hero, just as he had taken care of my family for so many years before me.

I will never forget this man or the time we were able to spend together. I will never forget his shining blue eyes and his hearty laugh, his long limbs, and the extreme amount of love he had for his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. I will never meet another man quite like him. I pray every day that he is looking down on all of us from Heaven, right beside his Jesus, just smiling and laughing. I know he would be proud of me for the young woman I’ve become, and I owe so much of that to him. I can’t wait for the day that I can see him again.