Roads-Rewrite Essay#4

Essay #4 -Roads...What a person follows.










Sometimes I think that life is like a relentless path of different roads. If you think about it, we start life fresh and new, like a dirt road always needing the ongoing support to keep it maintained. The rigid road that becomes paved and smooth, like the way that life portrays. And then the dead end road at the end of life. My grandmother followed all these roads throughout her life and shared them with me.



Her life began rough as it was. Her mother passed away at a very young age and was raised with her brother by her father only. She told me that she did whatever needed to be done, working hard and a short lived school experience, as she needed to help fend for her family. She would wake up early at 4am and go fishing in the ocean to catch fish and then spend the day walking throughout the village to sell her catch or for trade. and making her father proud of her efforts. She was there during the war and the memories that she endured made her become a more family oriented person, as she watched many families broken. She had to make her road last long enough to eventually make it become better. There would be a much better road for her to follow.



The second part of her life started just as rough as her younger years and she would never think that her roads ahead would smoothen out. She became a single mother of two young children as her better half went back to the Navy and never returned. She began to live her own life and made due with what she had. When her father passed away, she decided to open her own restaurant to be able to stay home with her children. The restaurant did wonderful. This would boost her life. The bumps in the road were starting to lessen. Then my Grandfather came along and swept her off her feet. Though he was a serviceman as well, he held true to her and was there with her and then after three more children. The toughest challenge would be to turn off the smoother road and start another path in the United States.



My grandmother left behind the fresh,rough, road that she started on and also the pitted road that she smoothed out to another road ahead, in another world. This time, life would be on a more settled home. Everyone would then be all together, after years of separation. The road of her life was able to stay smooth and straight. Life became a normal life for my grandparents. Family time, outings, and every day daily life. They were able to enjoy each other for years and years. It all became the ‘norm’ for all of us. Until, obviously the days that came when my grandmother had to face that dreaded dead end road. It seems to be an adequate title. Because it seems that the dead end road is when it all stops. She passed away fulfilled with the paths that she made.



I often think back to the stories that she used to tell me about her life. It was so sad and unfortunate that anyone, especially a person that I adored, had to face it. I admired her toughness and spirit to keep continuing, even though at times she thought that the road would be at a closer end. I have the most respect for her. If some people would just think of the choices that they have and the roads that they can follow, they would have a much more happier life. My grandmother didn’t have the choices back then. She did what she needed to do and created the paths that made her the woman that she was when she died. Even though she started out on that fresh, not quite maintained road, she made sure that it would become smoother for her and especially her family, regardless of what the efforts would have entailed. But I can say that it lightens my heart to know that when she had passed she was at the smooth, straightened road and even though her last stop was at the dead end road, she was proud, as I am, for getting there.