My Dad

I miss my mom and my dad. I miss my dad the MOST. I cry every once in a while.  I miss him, I miss his smile and I still shed a tear every once in a while. I miss my dad SO MUCH. I think of my dad every single day.

It doesn't seem like my dad has been gone for 2 years,  and 3 days. I feel so bad that I hadn't been home most of the day that day my dad passed. I should have NOT been out with my friend Konstance most of that day. I wish I stayed home all day. But I did not know that my dad was going to pass away.

 Around ten that night he was at work, he called my house and said this, "Tell mom that I love you and her so much, goodnight." I was wondering why he said that. But it was not unusual that he called at night saying, "I love you, goodnight." because he always went to work around 8:45 pm and came home at four or five in the morning.

             Around 11:00 pm, my mom and I kept getting calls, but we did not answer the phone because we were so tired. We unplugged the phone. Anyway we always went to bed after my dad left for work, always.

At around 11:16 pm, there was knocking on the door. We were so tired that we did not go open the door. We thought whoever that person was would leave, but they kept knocking. Finally, I looked out the window and it was the police. I got scared so I told my mom to open the door. She opened the door and the police had told us that my dad was at the hospital. Me and my mom cried.

The police told us that the ambulance thought that my dad had a heart attack. We kept crying. And I asked the police "Is my dad alright?" and the police said "Billy was breathing on his own last time I saw him." I had a sense of relief, but my mom and I kept on crying. The police told my mom and I to get ready so he could bring us to Alaska Regional Hospital.

We got ready. By then, it was 11:30 pm. My mom, me and the police went into the police car and he brought us to the hospital. When we
were going in the hospital, people were staring at us because we were still crying. I did not mind the people staring because I was thinking of my dad. The police brought my mom and I into the emergency room. As soon as I stepped in, I cried even harder. I saw my dad lying on a bed. He was on life support and there were wires on his chest. It looked like my dad was having a seizure, but the doctor said that it was the wires that were on his chest.

My mom told me to go to my dad and tell him that I love him, but I couldn't because it was too hard to look at him like that. So I just sat on the bed across from him, crying. He was not awake, but breathing with life support.

We stayed in that room for about thirty minutes. Then they took my dad maybe to the 4th floor into the ICU. I called my cousin Symone. She rushed over to the hospital to comfort my mom and I a little. Later that night around 12:00am, we got to see my dad. I was still crying, my eyes were so puffed up from crying so much, and so were my mom's and Symone's. We stayed at the hospital until three in the morning. And then Symone brought my mom and I home to get some rest. I could not fall asleep because I was crying and thinking of my dad. My mom fell asleep because she was so tired.

Finally I fell asleep, it wasn’t until seven in the morning. By the time I woke up around ten in the morning, my mom was up, Symone, my aunt Eliza, my aunt Kathy, and cousin Charity were there. We all went to the hospital to see my dad. He was still on life support. I was talking to my dad even though he was not awake.

 Later that day, my cousin big Chris, Chris, and aunt Catherine were there. They gave my mom and I some comfort, though I still felt really sad.

My mom and I got the news that my dad had an aneurism. An aneurism is what people with high blood pressure can have I think. My dad had high blood pressure. He had medication for that, but he did not take his pills for
maybe a month because he said that he was tired of taking pills. There was so much blood in his brain that he was brain dead.

When the doctors said that he was brain dead, I asked them if he can be alright, but they said that he would be dead when they pull the plug. My mom had no tears left, but I did. I cried almost that whole day. The doctors said that my mom could decide when they would pull the plug. She decided the next day in the afternoon that they could pull the plug so we could have his funeral soon.

I stayed in that ICU room the rest of that day and the rest of that morning. That next morning, I told my dad that I love him so much. Tears fell down his eyes even though he was not awake. I was so sure that my dad heard me every time I talked to him. There were so many family members in that ICU room. I left that room with my cousin big Chris. We sat in the ICU lobby. Then minutes later, we both saw my dad on the bed being brought by doctors to some kind of room. We saw him from a distance. I started crying. My cousin was hugging me. That just made me feel more sad. Me and my cousin were the last to see my dad breathing other than the doctors.

They had pulled the plug and my dad's organs were donated. A couple days after that, me, my mom, cousins, aunts, and my dad's body flew to Bethel and then to Newtok. When we reached Newtok, the plane flew 4 times around the village. The pilot said that flying around the village 4 times was traditional for when someone had passed and never been home in the village for a long time. It was so neat that we flew around the village 4 times. While we were in the air flying around the village, we saw lots and lots of people walking to the airport.

When we landed there were the National Guard and lots of people waiting at the airport. We got out of the plane and they took my dad's body out. The National Guard brought my dad's body to my grandma's house. There were so many people
following us. My grandma was sitting on her stairs waiting outside. We could not fit my dad's casket into my grandma's house. So the army let my grandma take a look at my dad. She kissed him and then the army brought my dad to the church so his body could be inside.

They let people look at my dad. A few days later, the morning before my dad's funeral, someone had opened the church and heard singing. That person looked in the church and there was nobody in there. And that person saw a light shining down on my dad even though the lights were not on in the church. That person thought it was angels leading my dad's soul to Heaven. I do not know who that person was. I would like to find out who it was.

The National Guard were supposed to come to Newtok to have the 21 Guns Salute because my dad was in the marines, but the weather was too windy. So it did not happen.

 In the afternoon, they had mass before my dad's funeral. I got to light the Easter Candle at the mass. After mass, they brought my dad across to the gravesite. I went with the army and my dad. The army said that I have to make sure that the US flag would not touch the ground. So I made sure, and it did not touch the ground.

Lots of people went across the river to bury my dad. During the burial, people were looking up in the sky and they saw clouds that looked like a perfect swan and a perfect heart next to the swan. After they buried him, they had a feast at the school. After the feast, they had Yup'ik dancing at the school and fiddle dancing at the community hall. It was kind of fun.

My mom and I stayed here in Newtok for a couple days and then went back to Anchorage. We were so lonely at home without my dad. We were depressed, but we started getting used to it. Months later we moved here to Newtok. My mom had to go back to Anchorage to watch the house, but I stayed here in Newtok. I feel like a part of my life is missing because it is not the same without my dad. We miss him terribly.