In honor of my papa!

Some of you may already know, but this past December my grandfather passed away. There are very few words that truly depict the grandeur of my papa! First I want to say how blessed I am to have friends that truly care about me no matter where they are in the world, whether it be close to home, moving, or an ocean apart from me. I want to thank those that were there to share thoughts and frustrations, fear and calmness, moments of insanity and hopelessness. I know why God has sent you to me and I thank him everyday.
Just a little background for those of you that I did not get to share the news, my grandpa had been in the hospital since the week before Thanksgiving due to a fall he had that previous week. We decided to take him to his primary care physician because he had lost all mobility in his legs and the arm that he had fallen on. It had scared my mom and I because before this my grandpa, although slow, was able to move on his own. That was nonexistent now. We chose to take him to the emergency room so that the doctors could x-ray his hip, which his PCP thought was broken. After a day in CDU (clinical diagnostic unit), the doctors and nurses were concerned with his blood. After a week of testing, the doctors found that my grandpa had a blood infection due to a meta port that was in his chest from when he received chemo during his stomach cancer, which he had been in remission for 3 years. The doctors decided that they would have to do surgery to clean out his left shoulder and left knee. His left had been replaced 20 years ago and was quote "bionic" according to the docs. He would have to have it replaced again and in the mean time while they cleaned the plates, he would have to have a rod and cement block in his knee.
The surgery occurred on Monday December 8th. I went to school on the 9th ready to put this to the side for the day, but I received a call at 7:30 in the morning from my mom saying that my grandpa went into cardiac arrest. I arrived to see my grandpa laying heavily sedated in the ICU. Unfortunately my grandpa never came out of the coma and we had to make the decision no one should have to make. The doctor told us that due to the short amount of time that my grandpa was in cardiac arrest there was swelling on the area of the brain that causes responses. My grandpa made it very clear years earlier that if he was to be a vegetable he would want the opposite at whatever cost. So as a family, we made the choice to let my grandpa go home to his mom and dad and family in heaven. It was the hardest thing for my family to say goodbye to a man that has influenced us immensely.
On December 19th at 1:15 my grandpa went home. We pray everyday together and we know that he is looking down and smiling. I only wish that I could see him again and hear his jokes and hear is laugh and see his smile. He had the most infectious smile. I just had to see him smile and I melted. I was blessed to have lived with my grandpa my whole life. I was blessed to learn that you live life the best you can and never regret anything you do. He told me that when I interviewed him for a education class at UD. He never regretted anything nor would he have change it!
I will leave you with the last thing I heard him say. As I was leaving him on the last night before the dark clouds hovered, I said "Bye papa, I love you, see you tomorrow." He turned and smiled at me and said "I love you too, I will be here!" I know that he always will be there!