Isaac

My grandfather

My grandfather, Isaac, is someone who survived cancer and fled his own country. He is a relatively healthy eighty-seven year old man. He is skinny, short, has white hair, and is a little bald. He has a great personality and a strong sense of will. But he must take pills every day and sometimes needs help to stand. Why? Because he is a survivor of cancer. At the age of eighty-three my grandfather got leukemia which is cancer of the blood. Leukemia in old people is not very dangerous but it weakens them. My grandfather got an infection and because he was weakened by the leukemia he could not fight the infection.

He stayed at the hospital for four months. He was very sick and I was not allowed to see him. He almost died. I saw him at the end of his hospital visit. It was an extremely depressing year for all of us, but we all believed that he would make it. Most people would say he survived because of the doctors but I think it was because he believed. My grandfather never cheats, is a nice, generous, loyal, honest and grateful man and he always does the right thing. He always used to go to synagogue but now he doesn’t because it is too difficult for him, but he still prays every morning.

My grandfather had to leave Lebanon when he was in his forties because the government was making bad choices and he sensed that Lebanon was falling apart. He came to Canada with almost no money and he managed to raise a family and start a business which is very successful. My grandfather changed my life by showing me how to believe because he always believed in himself and now he’s eighty-seven and a survivor of cancer! He also taught me how to believe in myself and other people. He taught me right from wrong and how to be a good person. I try to be like him every day and to do what’s right and help anyone who needs help. When he came to Canada he had a friend who needed some money and my grandfather lent his friend money when my grandfather had almost none. That is why my grandfather is a hero.