Gertrude.

The thought came to me that if time travel was indeed possible, I know the point in time in which I'd like to change. It isn't a point in my past that I want to change, I feel like I'm way too young to decide if there is a moment worth changing. The moment is actually from my father's past. 1973 to be exact. I don't really know the specific month and day, but the day in which my grandmother died. I know it must seem strange for me to pick this moment. Let me explain...

My grandmother, Gertrude, was killed in Hyannis, MA in a motor vehicle accident in 1973. My grandfather and her were riding with his motorcycle club when a car cut off my grandfather. In an attempt to avoid hitting the car, my grandfather swerved hard causing my grandmother to hit the hood of the car. I was told she wasn't wearing a helmet at the time, which why she recieved severe head tramua when she hit the car. She was only 34. (And this was why I use to get so worried when Nick would ride his bike.)

She left behind five children. My father, the oldest, was only 16 at the time. From stories that have been told to me over the years, it seemed after my grandmother died my grandfather got stricter and meaner. He was no kind soul to start with, but after she was gone he wasn't any better. I've always wished that I could have met her and as a child, when I use to see a shadow figure in my closet that would scare me...I'd always tell myself that it was just my grandmother watching over me while I slept.

So if given the chance to change one moment, I'd make it so that they never went for that motorcycle ride. And prehaps things would have been different for my father and his siblings. Maybe the things that tore them apart when they got older wouldn't have happened and I wouldn't have grown up with a spilt family. Then again prehaps it would have also meant that my parents would have never met and I wouldn't exist. I don't know though, I feel pretty confindent that I was/am meant to exist and that if I could indeed change that moment, I'd have grown up with a biological grandmother, who would have loved me...and she'd tell me stories about what it was like to grow up in Germany during WWII,  stories about how my father was a crazy little boy, and stories about what I was like as a child spending weekends at her house.

Maybe I would have had that or maybe she was meant to die young...sadly. RIP Gertrude Beiersdoerfer.