There are more important things in life.

If I've ever had a crazy week, it's this one. Hands down.

James' grandma passed away on Saturday. She wasn't my grandma, but I loved her like she was. My parents even loved her as much as I did. She was an amazing person, always making everyone comfortable, cooking really good food, and just being plain hospitable, even while she was sick. She was like super grandma. She was very family oriented and made sure her family stayed together and spent holidays together etc. Most importantly, however, she made James the happiest boy alive. Anything he wanted, she gave him. She took care of him in ways I could never take care of him. James loved his "yoya" and now she's gone. This breaks my heart as much as it's breaking his.

Since Saturday, there's been a whirlwind of events taking place. The planning of everything, the making sure everything is set, what time things are gonna be..etc. Being that I'm not even directly apart of the people planning and I'm stressed says a lot about how stressed James and his family must be. There's been prayers every night since and viewings start tomorrow until Thursday, the day of the funeral. I've rearranged my school schedules so I could make every possible event. What this means is... selling the Jimmy Eat World Tickets. It meant everything to me to go to that concert up until this happened. Now I know, and I'm continuing to learn, that there are more important things in life.

In fact, that's not the hardest thing I've had to do thus far. Actually, the hardest, most difficult thing is keeping James sane and happy. This usually comes easy to me. But recently, Ive been getting scared. I don't know if what I'm gonna say is going to make him sad, angry, annoyed. I know all I have to do is be there for him. I want to be there for him. More than anything in the world, I just want him to be okay. I don't want him to hurt. I've been doing anything in my power to make things okay for him and it's exhausting, but it's what I want more than anything and I am going to conintue to do whatever it takes. I owe him that. He deserves that.

Anyway, I hope all of you guys, no matter if you knew James or his family, to keep them and their grandma in your prayers. I also know an old friend of mine who is in the hospital , so my prayers are with him and his family as well.

That is all.

Mercedes (Yoya) Concepcion
Rest In Peace
1945-2009

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Current Music: A Song For Mama - Boys 2 Men
Current Read: The Tipping Point - Malcom Gladwell.