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Dealing With Grief: Moving Forward From Losing A Loved One

It was a Thursday evening, precisely two days after Christmas. I went to work in the morning and then came home and had dinner with my ex-boyfriend in the evening. As we sat and talked with the television on in the background, I saw a call coming through on my mobile from my mother in Jamaica. When I answered, she sounded panicked and told me that my granddad had fallen out of bed. 

Initially, I wasn’t fazed, my granddad was 85-year-old man with mild dementia. Yet, despite having dementia, he was a fun, hearty Jamaican man full of jokes and good spirit who was always happy to see me and my family whenever we’d visit. But, over the last two years, my granddad had fallen countless times, usually on his bottom, but on this occasion when he fell out of bed, he bumped his head and unbeknown to me and my family, this would be the last time he would fall. 

He was rushed into town to Mandeville Hospital - south of Jamaica - by my family. Here he had observations and took a range of tests, one of which found a bleed on his brain. As a result, a decision was made to operate on him to remove the bleed. He was transferred to another hospital in Kingston – the capital of Jamaica - where they operated on his brain to remove the bleed. After a few hours of surgery, we were told the operation was successful, but unfortunately, whilst in recovery a few hours later he died. 

On Sunday 30th December 2018, my grandfather George Leslie Housen passed away.