Watching My Grandfather Have A Heart Attack

Philadelphia
April 1963

When I was seven, I watched my grandfather have a heart attack.  He collapsed right on our front porch. It wasn’t clear to me what was going on.  But the panic made it abundantly clear that a crisis had occurred.  My mother and grandmother screamed and screamed.  I was so frightened by all this.  I remember standing on the sidewalk, waiting for the ambulance to come and get him and make him better.  They came and unloaded a stretcher and swept him up.  My mother and grandmother got in the back of the ambulance with him. And they took off, leaving my siblings and me stranded at our house. We had to fend for ourselves in the midst of this confusion and  grief.

Now every time I hear an ambulance, I think back to that awful moment.  Years later this moment helped me to withstand any peer pressure to smoke. And for that reason, I am grateful for this awful moment in my life.