One day toward the end of November, my aunt from Mexico called my dad and gave us sad news that my uncle only had 24 hours to live. We didn’t expect her telling us that because before, my uncle was doing well.

When my aunt told us the news, it made me feel heartbroken because my family and I were not with him when he needed us.

Before all this, he had already been in the hospital for two months because he had a strong pain in his stomach he couldn’t bear. The doctors did tests to see what illness he had; when he received the results, he was told he had an issue with his kidneys, which meant his kidneys were damaged and couldn’t filter blood the way they should.

When they told my uncle he was sick, he started to become worried and always kept thinking he was going to die because in all his years, he had never been through a pain like this.

Hearing the news that he only had 24 hours to live was the worst. I never imagined my family and I were going to go through this type of situation with my dad’s closest brother. Going through all of this was extremely difficult for me because every time we visit Mexico, my uncle and I are close to each other.

Since he’s always there for me, I wanted to be there for him and support him with everything he was going through. The distance was the worst part for me because if I lost him while I was away, it would be like losing a second dad.

I always did something in order to not see my dad sad and worried about his brother. But inside of me, I knew even if I did everything to help him stop thinking too much about my uncle, it wouldn’t be possible.

I still remember my dad’s words when he said, “Even though the doctors said he only has 24 hours, we need to have much more faith and hope that everything is not as the doctors told us.” The words from my dad made me stop thinking about negative things and made me focus on the positive things which could happen during the moment. Now is the beginning of a new year and I thank God my uncle is still with us.