Grandpa Tom

Author's Note: This is a character sketch that I wrote about a character named Grandpa Tom. It's in the point of view of his granddaughter when they go to visit him at his home. I would like feedback on my word choice. Thanks!

We drove up the gravel filled driveway, the sharp rocks digging into our tires, almost giving us a flat. My parents and I were going to visit my grandfather, Tom. Tom lived in a spacious green house that streched across about half an acre long. Walking along the lawn, I wondered how he was. Ever since Grandma Hannah died, Tom seemed to go into a state of depression, where nothing mattered to him anymore. I hoped that our visit would make him feel better.

All three of us were trudging through the grass, glancing up at the house and its upkeep. For Tom not having a job, the house looked absolutely awful. Bushes growing up and covering the windows, desperately needing to be cut. You could barely see the front door. I hope this wasn't a sign of how the rest of the trip would go.

"Claudia!" I heard Grandpa Tom call out. Seeing him, I was shocked. I expected him to look bad, yet this was horrid. His face was lined with seemingly millions of wrinkles, his arms were like sticks, and his cheeks were sunken in as well. You were able to see the cheekbones popping out. It was disgusting. My thoughts were scattered, but a coherent one was, Is there anything we can do to help him?

Tom's house was even worse than the lawn. It looked like something out of that TV show Hoarders. Empty boxes of Lean Cuisine and Jimmy Dean littered the kitchen floor, some still half full. It smelled like a mixture of burned bacon and dead leaves. My heart dropped in my chest. I was hoping that Tom would have been able to handle himself better, yet it seemed not.

My parents and I were all desperate. It seemed like there was nothing we could do to help them, no matter what. The only thing that we could do, we realized, was place him into a nursing home. There, Tom would be able to have the care he needed. He could also feel the love that we all knew Tom desired. Hopefully, I thought, this can be Grandpa turning over a new leaf.

The very next morning, my mother found Grandpa Tom dead in his bed. He went to sleep the previous night, and never woke up. It was such a shock, and a blow to the whole family. I wish that we would have came to see him sooner, because then all of us could have discovered he needed help. Maybe then Tom would still be with us, or, at the very least, the last few years of his life would have been more enjoyable.