A short story..

This is a true story:
Once upon a time there were two little girls. One was made with fire like the sun and one was made of a kindness as sweet as chocolate. These two little girls were my sister and I. For those of you that know us you know that when my sister and I were little that she was clearly the spicy one and I was clearly the sweet one. We were a great combination. When my sister and I were little we would go visit Grandma Mryn and Papa Cook in Kettlefalls before they made the move out to Wenatchee to be close to us, Makenzie and I always had a good time. We were like any other pair of little girls. We would adventure up the mountain side and find the perfect area to play house and to play princess games or Pocahontas. As you can imagine... Mak always got to be Pocahontas and I always had to be the friend, I mean she was the older of course which entitled her to the right to be the main character.

Any who...

Grandma was an ICU nurse for many years and so she was always giving us precautionary talks.. At one point in our childhood we went to visit for a few days and grandma had let us know that there was a wild cat in the upper deck of the shed and it had some kittens up there but to make sure that we didn't get near them because if the mom bit us that it could be very unhealthy and dangerous.
Most of us know how Makenzie is. Tell her no and she screams yes. Tell her jump and she said how far. Tell her that she shouldn't like someone and shell love them. Tell her not to cut all her hair off and she'll do a pixie. This is just the way Mak has been since before I can even remember.
"Don't go trying to pet those cats, if you get a bite you can get really sick from it!" -Grandma
Makenzie and I walk out of the room
"Hey Kay, lets go pet those cats." -Makenzie two feet out of the door. I obviously listened to her. She was the boss of me and could also whoop my ass in two seconds flat if I said I was telling on her. Makenzie and I wondered off to the shed as sneaky and sly as we could possibly be. When Makenzie and I got in the shed Makenzie had stuck her hand right up to the cat with no hesitation and she was bit within a few minutes of the conversation with my grandma.
"Kay! What am I going to do? Grandma is going to be so mad! What if it gets infected?"- Makenzie
After Kenzie exclaims how she knows she is going to be in just so much trouble we manifested a plan. I being the little sister decided I would take one for the team. I bit my hand as hard as I could tolerate and wondered inside and asked grandma what would happen if I really did get bit by a cat. I showed grandma my bite and I swear that woman can smell a lie in a ten mile radius because she so slyly suggested that if someone got bit they should wash it immediately and probably put something on it and then looked me smack in the eye and said "Makenzie got bit huh?" and then it was all over from there.

Just a fun little tid bit about my sister and my younger years.

Papa Cook

Loss. Something so earth shattering and heart breaking. Something every single individual will go through in their lives, some more than others. Yesterday morning at 4:08 am I had this feeling of loss. I had that void in my heart that empty hole that told me I had lost someone, it was immediate. I have felt loss in many senses. I've lost friends that chose to move on. I've lost boyfriends that didn't seem to be the one. I've lost keys, and chargers, and shoes, and shirts and all the in-between. However, it had been a long time since I felt loss in which death was the case.
Dwight R. Cook is the kind of grandpa that was always there. He watched you and watched over you all at the same time and even when you didn't think he was listening.. he was. He had an opinion about everything but was very sparse about what he actually shared but when he did it was all ears. Towards the end of his time he didn't hold back on what he shared and it was such a beautiful thing to be around and to hear about when I wasn't there.
He lived a very great life. He played for the New York Giants and the Cardinals, he was a State Patrol Officer for twenty-two years, he was married for close to fifty-two years to a woman that would do anything for him, he had two amazing kids that grew to be amazing parents to their kids, and he was an awfully good father, grandpa, brother, and husband.
No holiday will be the same without him. His recliner that sits in the living room facing the TV just right will never be the same. His end chair at the dinner table during family dinners won't ever be the same. The house, the deck, the kitchen, the computer room, his room. None will ever be the same. As devastating and hard as it is I will never be able to thank God or him enough for waiting to let go until I was there. He wasn't in any pain, he wasn't scared and he knew it was his time. We are so lucky to have had those precious moments in the few days prior to his death where he was coherent enough to let us know how grateful he was for all the things in his life and all his future wishes. He left a huge impact on all of our lives and he will forever be remembered. I hope that us grandkids can live up to his expectations and goals in time.