From Birth to Death

Dana Gradney
November 18, 2012
Invitation to life span
From Birth to Death
On Friday October 30, 1987 at Moss Regional Hospital I was born Dana Elaine Gradney to Paul and Rosa Gradney in Lake Charles, Louisiana. I have three older siblings Latreza, Paulrika, and Paul II who came and seen me for the first time before going trick or treating. Once me and my mother was discharged from the hospital my daddy brought us home where we lived in Mossville, Louisiana till the age of two and then my family moved us to Zion, Illinois. In Illinois we were closer to my father’s older siblings I stayed home with my mother while my father worked and my siblings went to school. I have little memory of wearing a snow suit and playing outside with my siblings on Christmas when my brother shot his toy gun piece and it went in the fireplace. Two years later My mother was accepted into nursing school back home so we moved back to Louisiana. I then started Pre-K at Wonderland of Play where I am still friends with three of my fellow classmates today. I then started Kindergarten at Westwood Elementary in Westlake, Louisiana till the fifth grade along with playing softball and school clubs throughout the years. I had many friends’ great memories of sleepovers with family. I remember my parents waking us up saying they heard the reindeers on the roof. They use to trade boxes on our gifts so we would think it was something we didn’t ask Santa for. On my 8th birthday I met my cousin Larissa Tanner for the first time and we became best friends instantly. In 1996 my oldest sister became pregnant with my first niece. On July 8, 1997 Torreyan Kia-Latrece Gradney was born my first niece and my parents first grandchild. In 1998 I moved to Houston, Texas because my mother accepted a better nursing position. I started school at Wilson Intermediate where I met new friends, joined school clubs, had my first boyfriend, and tried out for cheerleading for the first time. My cousin came to Texas every weekend my father or my grandmother (my mother’s mother) came to visit. To keep us occupied during the summer we opened up a little store at home that sold all the junk food you could imagine. In 1999 I started school at Shotwell middle school until I was accepted to Drew academy magnet school. In 2003 my grandmother was diagnosed with pancreas cancer so we all packed up and moved back home. I continued my second semester of school at S.P. Arenett middle school where I was reunited with my friends from elementary. We helped with my grandmother as much as we could but the cancer took over on July 24, 2003 and she passed away in Moss Regional Hospital. My mother had a hard time dealing with this and being that she was the only child she had no siblings that actually knew what she was going through to help. In August of 2003 I finally hit high school where I attended school at Westlake high school where I thought I was grown and independent enough to do everything on my own, boy was I wrong. I moved with my great aunt and cousin while I took drivers education where I finally began to drive. My great aunt took in her great grandchildren after she found them home along at the age of 3 months and 3 years old Jaleshia and Kionna. After drivers education I moved back home and my cousins came home with me. My mother loved children and didn’t mind helping my auntie look after them. After my sister graduated I changed schools to Sulphur high school because we moved. This is where I learned my love to cook and work in the healthcare profession. I studied to become an Ems and I received a certificate because I exceled in my all pro cooking course. I met my best friend Susie Sonnier who I still talk to almost every day. After a year of taking care of Jaleshia her family came and took her and wouldn’t let us see her for months. Kionna went back with my auntie months before. My mother was devastated being that this was the one thing that kept her occupied after my grandmothers death. Soon after we found out that my sister Paulrika was pregnant with her first child. On July 16,2004 I was offered my first job at Popeye’s great experience and the learning the lesson of responsibilities. In September of 2004 on the way to blockbuster my sister and I noticed a wreck. We went to block buster and on our way back we realized it was a red car. I dialed my brother’s number to check to see where he was and an older man answered the phone. I immediately dropped the phone and started running. We were not prepared for the vehicle we seen. My brother had hit a tree and was trapped in the car. They had to cut off the door and pull him from the passenger side. After they rushed him to West Calcasieu Hospital they shipped him to Louisiana State University Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana. He had a broken arm, a broken ankle and stitches in his left leg where the emergency break went into his leg he was in ICU for a week. Focusing on school was hard. Every weekend they let me off work to go to Shreveport to visit him until he was released to go home. The whole time a bird sat on his window seal from the day he was transferred to a regular room to the day he was discharged. That bird never left his side. On November 5, 2004 Duntaee D’von Anthony Gradney was born. My first nephew and my parents first and only grandson. Bringing him home was something new but we all had fun helping her with him. Finally I started my senior year in August. In September 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana it didn’t hit us physically but it was close to home and hit us emotionally. Two weeks later we were forced to evacuate and it took us literally twice as long to get to Arkansas and a hurricane my hometown causing a national disaster. We stayed in Arkansas for weeks but, we had our family, cousins, and friends we grew up with all in the same hotel until we were finally able to go home. One of our homes had mold half way up the house where water had been. The house smelled horrific and we ended up having to tear it down. On January 4, 2006 my cousin Larissa was in a car accident with her one year old daughter and passed away. This was one of the most devastating things I had to go through in a while. On May 25, 2006 I graduated from Sulphur High School. This was a happy moment and I finally achieved on of my accomplishments. In August 2006 I started my first semester for college and it was nothing like I thought it would be. I ended of failing because I was more worried and was more concerned with friends and partying. I went to school one more semester and ended up just working and partying. In January 2007 we had a party for my grandmother (my fathers mother) and that night she was rushed to the hospital. One week later they took her off her machine and she passed away. Things had me starting to ask why. This was very difficult for my father being that his father passed away years ago. 8 months later On September 11, 2007 I woke up sick and my sister woke up with contractions my brothers former and current girlfriend took her to the hospital. Later on that evening my second niece Dynastee D’Asia Rene Gradney was born and I was able to sit through the whole labor and delivery process. On October 31, 2007 on my way to New Orleans to celebrate my 20th birthday with friends I met a young man by the name of LaMarcus Perry. To this day I would have never known he would be the love of my life and the father to our children. In November of 2007 I moved back to Texas with my mother but still talked and visited LaMarcus often. On Novmber 11,2011 my brother had his daughter Lei’aja Amerie Pearl Gradney and the changes a baby can make you do is amazing. I stayed in Houston for a year and moved back home. Three months later I found out I was pregnant. LaMarcus and I where shocked but accepted we were about to become parents. I worked until I was eight months and then took a maternity leave. On a Thursday Morning I woke up to my water bag leaking. I went to the hospital four hours later and called my father’s child who was working three hours away. While I was in labor he drove back home and made it home in an hour and a half. At 3:20pm on November 12, 2009 I gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby girl LaNiya MaKynzi Perry 5lbs 14oz. We were happy, exited, and ready to bring our baby home. I became a stay at home mom and we moved in our first house in March of 2010 as a family. I continued to stay home and watch our baby girl grown until July when I became a Patient Care Tech at Saint Patricks Hospital. I loved my job and loved taking care of my patients. On April 28,2011 I found out I was pregnant with my second child while going for my birth control appointment. We were shocked and scared. We decided to not find out the gender until our child was born. I became sick all the time and I was always hurting. After seven months of not knowing the sex of the baby we decided to find out and it was another girl. A month and a half before my due date I started contracting,bleeding, and started having problems. On December 10, 2011 I woke up early feeling uncomfortable. I woke up my children’s father/boyfriend and he stayed up with me trying to comfort me being I had been to the hospital twice that week already. After laughing and talking for two hours we laid down my water broke. We both jumped up and looked at each other. We began to scramble and get ready and get our bags, lucky our oldest was with my mom for a week. As we headed to the hospital we stopped and picked up one of my good friends Dannaka. As I went into labor five hours later at 2:45pm I gave birth to Laiyana MaKynlee Perry 4lbs and 15oz one month premature. She had to stay in the hospital for a week and we both stayed until she was realeased from the hospital. The day we went home my mother brought LaNiya back from Texas. She was excited and filled with joy when she met her baby sister for the first time and till this day you can’t keep them apart. I continued to be a stay at home mom then in May of 2012 I finally decided to get myself back on the right track and finish school. Me and my family moved to Texas where I started working in August. I am a fulltime student, and parent. It gets hard but I have to finish for them. When I become an older adult I hope to be finish with school, working in my desire profession in nursing, and married with my dream house. I hope to become successful and take care of my family while my husband becomes whatever his desire to be. I hope I die at an old age on a cool winter day maybe 70 or 80. I want my funeral to be filled with pink. I want to be buried next to my mother and father. I don’t want anyone to morn I want them to remember all the good things about me and all the fun times we had. I hope to be at a place in life in my religion that is acceptable to God and he could be proud. I don’t like to talk about death and dying so much but this would be how I would want to go. And this is the story of from the womb to my tomb.