Loosing you at 14

My dad had glioblastoma multiforme. I was 12 when he was diagnosed and he passed away almost two years later in July 2017. I turned 14 two weeks later.

I live in constant pain remembering what happened to him and seeing him deteriorate in front of my own eyes. My dad was a strong man, he went through surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and all the unimaginable. I used to believe it was a sign for better, and I knew he had cancer, I just didn’t know he would pass away.

I myself was going through depression and seeing him in pain everyday not knowing what the cause was, my mom not telling me what was happening really affected me to the maximum. At the end of his days he was in hospice, those excruciating days, watching him fade in front of my own eyes in the house that I still live in. He was no longer my father.

The process has been difficult for me. His death hasn’t really hit me until recently, because so many factors of growing up without him really kill me inside. So much anger and sadness in my heart, to not to be able to see him again. I just wish that someday I would see him again. Te amo papá..

 – Janine Castillo

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Opinions expressed within this story belong solely to the author and do not reflect the views or opinions of the National Brain Tumor Society.