She carefully set her cell phone down on her desk and stared at the computer screen in front of her.

She couldn't feel anything.

She could only hear those two words replaying themselves in her head.

"He's gone."

Her grandfather, or "Paw Paw" as the grand kids had called him, had suffered a massive heart attack or possibly a stroke only a few hours before.  He was rushed from his country farm in Anna, Illinois to Union County Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 8:37am.

He was 74 years old.

She was angry.  She was angry for being upset.  She was angry for hurting for someone who had spoken to her once in the past ten years.  But mostly, she was confused.  She hadn't cried yet, she wanted to cry.  She wanted to hit him.  She wanted to run away.

She sat at her desk for a few minutes and stared at the now completely unimportant email she had been writing.  She began to email professors and calling to make arrangements to be gone a few days.