Grandpa Camacho

This was a very trying and tiring week for me.  I got a call on Monday evening saying that Grandpa was really sick, his kidneys were failing and that I needed to go to Parkview Memorial in Fort Wayne to see him.  I made a trip to see him on Monday, Tuesday and finally on Thursday.  Each time I was able to hold his hand, massage his aching legs, kiss his forehead and cheeks and tell him how much I loved him and appreciated him.  

 

On Thursday, February 26, 2009 at exactly 3:30pm he was pronounced dead.  My brother Lalo and I made a trip to go see him that morning.  We walked in the room with my parents and my other sibling Melissa (unfortunately Jon was leaving for Florida for baseball and was unable to make it).  We walked in as a family, each taking turns holding his hand and telling him we loved him and said our goodbyes.  He would squeeze each of our hands to let us know that he knew we were there.  It was a long morning and afternoon.  Around 2:30 all twelve of his children and his wife went into his room to spend the last moments of his life with him.  They sang songs to him and talked to him while they delivered him to God.  

 

Nearly all 40 some of my cousins were there as well as spouses of my mom's siblings.  We made a circle and each shared a memory of Grandpa.  Some were funny, cause Grandpa was strict and sometimes "scary" in his form of discipline (we often referred to him as "The Godfather").  Most of us shared that for all of our lives Grandpa gathered the whole family and had celebrations with us such as Christmas, New Years, Mother's and Father's Day,  4th of July, their birthdays, Thanksgiving and sometimes just a random day.  Because of these gatherings, we have great memories of growing up together.   All of us grew up understanding the value of family and most of us still get together to this day.  Grandpa created a unified family that stood by each other all of the time.  He was not a perfect man, but he was a powerful, loving and intelligent man.  He even brought us all together to celebrate his birth into heaven.  After the final person shared their memory we held hands to pray The Lord's Prayer and right before we began our prayer my Uncle Tony came out to tell us he had passed.  We all prayed and cried and hugged.

 

I had the privilege of seeing my Grandpa after he died.  He did not look peaceful or physically good.  He looked like he was gone.  The beauty around him was not his physical body, but the look that his soul had been sucked out by God and he was no longer suffering in his physical body.  I have shed many tears, because it is never easy to say goodbye.  He was the patriarch of our family, the person who taught us so much about respect, community and loyalty.  Grandpa's viewing and funeral were beautiful and I thank God that I had the opportunity to say Good-bye and to see someone leave their body to be with God.  

Please keep our family in your prayers as we adjust to no longer having his physical body with us, and as my family grieves saying goodbye to a husband, dad, grandpa and friend.