A tile to bring a smile
By Heather Lipscomb
21 June 2008
My grandpa had been diagnosed with cancer a few years back and when they had found it, it had already gone through his body and bones so there was nothing to be done. This was about a year or so before my high school graduation and I had remembered when my brother graduated, all my grandpa could talk about was going to see mine and how excited he was for it, so I remembered thinking how I just hoped he could make it for that, since he was already so thrilled. The day of my graduation came and I had my grandpa in the crowd, which made it such a happy day for me. I remember hearing and then seeing an ambulance as I was sitting and waiting to receive my diploma, my heart dropped...until I realized it wasn't for him. I was so happy he had been there to see me because I did it mostly for him. As time went by my grandpa just kept getting worse, and when I saw him at Christmas time, months later, he had forgotten more than half of our family. We drew names for gift exchange and I picked his, which made me really sad because I knew it wasn't going to be much longer before he went. A couple months later I had the chance to go visit him but I couldn't bring myself to it because I had heard that he wasn't the same anymore, and it would have just been too hard. So instead I decided I had to give him something to make him smile. I then took three of my favorite pictures of us and had it turned into a beautiful ceramic tile. I was determined to make it so amazing for him, but couldn't find a frame to fit it. I started to cry because I didn't think this was going to work like I wanted. So my boyfriend bought a framed tile and carefully broke the old tile out of it, so he wouldn't ruin the frame. He then put new glue into the frame and carefully placed the tile I had made into the frame, it was amazing. I had my parents bring it when they went to go see him and they said he smiled so much when he saw it and was looking at the pictures and even remembered what was going on in them. That put so much happiness into my heart because one fear was that he might have forgotten me as well. A couple weeks later, I got a missed call from my mom and my whole world just crumbled because I knew what that call was even before I called her back. I had just made it in time with the tile, and although he couldn't enjoy it for long, I knew it brought him so much joy and will always be something that brought a smile to his face before he left this place...
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