Grief

on saturday last week, my oupa, mike bartman, died. he was 77 years old. we didnt expect him to die, but he did. we were picking my aunts shell and bron up from the airport, when the hospital phoned my mom and told her that oupas breathing wasnt good. we rushed to the hospital, and mom, bron and shell went in to see him. mom said he looked really bad, and she didnt want us to remember him that way. so morgy, gordon, hannah (my cousin from england who came with bron) and i went down to the cafe to buy milkshakes with the money mom gave us, and to wait. half an hour later, oupa just stopped breathing and died. bron and shell took it really hard, this had been the only time they saw him. we were all upset. mom phoned mike, who got a plane ticket, and came down that night with his wife and daughter. it didnt really sink in for me that oupa was dead till last night. i never got to say goodbye. i never told oupa how much i loved him. dad says he knew. i can only pray that he did. oupa wasnt like other grandparents. he was never very affectionate. he never really hugged me, or told me that he loved me. he did buy us shoes though. and nice things on our birthdays. he used to have his classical music blaring at night, when he was all tucked in and stuff, before he went to bed. he practiced medicine up till a few weeks before he died. i remember he always used to do his crosswords in his chair in the morning, while we kids ate breakfast. he had his nicknames for us: frankie (morgy) ukkel (me) and rastus (gordon). and no one else will call me that again. i loved my oupa, and he loved us although he never told us. i miss him, and wish i told him the last day i saw him how much i do love him. the last words i said to my oupa were "i'll see you next week then". but i never did. i wish so much, that i said more. but i didnt. and well, i cant change what happened.

Gordon Dreams A Dream

hey guys! gordon stumbled out of bed this morning, sleepy eyed and half asleep still, got dressed and ya. then it hit him. he had had a fantastic dream, a dream of wonders, the dream of dreams !!!! any way, he could not wait to share his wonderful dream with us, his lowly sisters who spent the night dreaming of simon pursuing them through dark alley ways and such (just kidding. i couldnt remember what i had dreamed) ANYWAY, gordon came dashing into the kitchen shouting excitedly "MUST TELL SCALLY AND MORGY ABOUT MY DREAM!! I MUST I MUST!!" he ran into the kitchen, grinning his ears off ready to tell all, where he was greeted wiht a cynical stare from morgy (eyebrow raised), and me, with my mouth gaping open, my spoonful of cereal halfway to my mouth. the spoon dropped out of my hand, which had been numbed with shock. the sound "tink..." of the spoon hitting the floor echoed around the room for a full minute. ( we were not used to this kind of excitement from gordon this early in the morning.) gordon cleared his throat, and asked if we had poured him some cofffee. i simply nodded, my vocal chords still not quite recovered. he sat down and started eating his brekkers. he swallowed and looked at us, we were by now over the shock and eating once again. he announced
" i had a great dream last night... i dreamed we were thatching a roof. and strange and wonderful things were happening i tell you!!! the thatch was leaping from the ground to our waiting hands, and we got it done in no time at all... WOWW!!! ( he said this to instill in us the sense of wonder he was feeling, i was sipping my coffee, and morgy was still raising her eyebrow) ok, then i dreamed that the people in America kept trying to phone me, but my phone wouldnt work. so i ended up with A HUNDRED AND EIGHTY MESSAGES, one hundred and eighty, i tell you!!! (he was foaming at the mouth by this time, because of the weightiness of the message he was proclaiming) but then my phone got a virus. just as i was puzzling on how to fix it, mr. sikma and john showed up wearing shirts that stated " i am a south african". john and i then went to a mall (not sure which one), and i asked john how fiddler on the roof went, but he totally ignored me. he kept walking into a store , and changed into timosi (my oupas 50 year old gardener from malawi) ... strange i tell you. okok, thats not all though..(i almost choked, as i was hoping this crazy fiasco would now end) then bruno ( a kid from our school) appeared at the back door, dressed like a bum. for some reason i had a strange foreboding about him. he asked me where a laundromat was, and i told him. then he told me to go with him in his car (this kid is in 7th grade) but i refused. fearing for your safety (talking to me now) i told you to run round to the front door and come in there and not to talk to bruno. then he carved a strange carving on the tree, and left. that was my wonder-dream. cool eh?"
morgy and i sat there, looking at him with blank stares. the scene was disrupted by my mom coming in and saying "LOOK AT THE TIME!!!" so we got up to brush our teeth. i was glad my brother took me seriously enough to tell me his wonder dream... but then, i dont know. is he ok i wonder?i hope so.

this post was mainly fictionalized by me, the editor. all rights reserved. i obtained permission from the person this post was about to do so, so dont think me some cheat. the dream though, was totally real. he did dream all that i put up, i just made it more interesting.