I was with my opa (lung cancer) when he died, and more recently with my other grandfather, when we got the call that his last sister, my aunt (renal failure) when she moved on...

Both when the time came were barely coherent, as they're organs slowly failed. With my opa, I made sure that he knew I loved him, and I gave him humourous books for him to enjoy, one of which was Kendall's Stories Told In the Kitchen, which he dearly loved. Thank you, Kendall, for writing such a great book. It meant alot to an old man in his final months. When the call came, I was taking a bath and reading a book. I immediately got dressed and rushed over, to say goodbye, and we showered him with love as his spirit slowly gasped from the world. Then we embraced each other and cried.

The end for my aunt was similar, except that right up to the end she kept her humour up, and so did we, everyone in and out, to check on her, to be with her, and to joke with her, and more importantly fences were mended with certain people. When the final stage came, it came with a vengeance, one day she was up and about, smoking, and laughing with friends and family, and the next she was bedridden. The last few days, we knew the end was coming, and she slipped in and out of consciousness, seeing ghosts, the spirits of the dead that still haunted her heart, sometimes crying out for them. Then, her last night, she went to sleep, and never woke up again, dying the next afternoon....we were just 20 minutes away, so we couldn't say goodbye to her, just to the husk she vacated.

However, in the end, both knew they were loved, and both knew we would feel the pain of their loss. In my way of thinking, there can be no better way to go, than surrounded by the people who matter the most to you, than surrounded by love.