When my wife began to lose her mind, I discovered our guardian angels had been talking to each other. I found it out when my wife accidentally started a fire in the kitchen. Trying to extinguish the blaze, she threw a paper bag onto the flames. Before she could scream, I felt something insisting I rush into the kitchen. Picking up the frying pan, I set it in the sink and doused the flames with the extinguisher. If my wife and I had been Irish, our neighbors would have said, Lord, deliver us from the fury of the O’Flattery’s; and I must confess that I was thinking of yelling or screaming, but my guardian angel put the words, “No harm, no foul,” into my mouth; and once said, I had to live with them. For the first time since we were married,
I started to read in the kitchen while she cooked. “Why are you reading in here after all these years?” she asked. “It took me this long to figure out by sitting here, you wouldn’t have to scream when you wanted me.” That was the start. Soon, I was chopping cilantro, cebolla, and papas. Then, she took my place at the table. In the beginning, she gave instructions. Later, she watched. Then, I brought her into the kitchen. At first she wore a small bib. Then, a bath towel, and finally, a beach towel and a shower cap. One day, I began to feed her. Then, hospice came and placed her bed in the living room. Her mother moved in. I hired a nurse. Soon, Patsy stopped talking. Later, she stopped eating. On the day, Suzie Marinez, her best friend, visited, our guardian angels held a conference, and as the women were turning patsy, the winged spirits placed my hands onto my wife’s face. For the last time, she opened her eyes, and as I looked at her she died. With the aid of my thumbs, she closed her eyes. “Mom. Suzie,” I said, and then, my meager Spanish failed me, and I couldn’t remember how to say she died. Breathing on my lips, my guardian angel gave me these words, “Patsy cerro sus ojos todo siempre.” Patsy has closed her eyes forever.
Ireland is described as, “Poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long year” (9). The family lived in poor and life threatening conditions. Eleven families shared one lavatory which was closest to the McCourt family door. The lavatory is never cleaned and can kill them from all the diseases (112-113). Although the conditions were bad they couldn’t move it was the cheapest and most affordable place they could find for six shillings a week.
Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. I am going to keep this speech fairly short because of my throat; the bride said that if I made fun of the groom too much she would cut it.
As human beings we long for a connection with other human beings and hope that the connection is positive and helps us overcome our fears and struggles. A very first step to connect with one another is to overcome the anxiety about our self-shame and start daring greatly.
My dad was the first to get off of the four wheeler, he anxiously checked to make sure I was okay, and even after I told him I was fine multiple times, he insisted to have my aunt, who is a nurse, double check everything. We were both extremely lucky to come out of the situation without any serious injuries. I have no doubt that a guardian angel was with us that day because we were more than lucky to end up the way we did. I definitely learned my lesson to be careful before you try to be cool that day, unfortunately I had to learn it through a dangerous and scary
When reading the article “The Perils and Promises of Praise”, I was taken aback by the fact that there was a thing as negative praise. The studies show that just telling someone that they are intelligent is detrimental to future success in challenging situations because of the fear of failure. Encouragement of hard work and effort works more effectively than praising intelligence. I still feel that there is a missing element that was not mentioned in the article. It is secret number three in motivation for success in school. That motivation is the parents of the students. I was told that if I failed my classes, I could expect severe punishment and retribution for my failure, unless I prove I tried my best. Motivation is not just praise; it is the support of those adults in a student’s life that gives reinforcement of positive ideas
Tim O’Brien’s use of distinct characterization gives an insight how admiration is interpreted by different people. O’Brien’s use of phrases such as “deep brown like her hair”(216), “her white skin”(217), and “the way she always smiled”(217) reveals a positive point of view about admiration. These phrases are meant to be positive because the character Tim O’Brien is recalling a distant memory from his childhood about his girlfriend,Linda, when she was nine years old. The remarks made by O’Brien tells readers how he really feels about Linda and his admiration for her even after years later. These phrases also characterize Linda by describing what she looks like. Tim O’Brien then probes into the idea about the opposing view on admiration. O’Brien
I prayed every day that I would see my grandpa and he’d get better. A couple of days later we heard he was moved to the “Cardiac Arrest area where a section in the hospital has people that have had a sudden stop of their heart beating and functioning” (“What is sudden Cardiac Arrest”). The good news was the nice kind doctors found a solution to the problem. They insisted to insert a defibrillator. The doctors knew it was the best solution to the problem “ A defibrillator is a procedure used to treat life threatening conditions that affect the rhythm of the heart such as cardiac arrhythmia, ventricular fibrillation and pulseless vertikator tachycardia” (Mandel). After a couple of days later they do the process to insert the defibrillator. I was hoping it would work and I would be able to see my Grandpa again, but they kept him in hospital for a day or two to see if he’d be ok. Then the doctors started seeing healing and advances that he was doing better. Finally, after being in the hospital for 10 days I got to see my funny awesome Grandpa again and it was one of the most best moments in my life. I asked
My sister sat down and laid my head on her lap, I wanted to know everything would be okay and it felt like she was all I had left. She rubbed my head and told me it would be okay, that she wouldn’t let anything bad happen to us. I trusted her, she had no way of knowing it would be okay, she wasn’t that much older than me. We needed our dad to tell us, but nobody would tell us when that was going to
Once, my mom couldn’t make it to my football game and, apparently, she told him to come. He never showed and when I got home at dinnertime, I asked my mom why she wasn’t there. She said, “Chase, Dave was supposed to be there..?” Her confused hazel eyes were the color of my own. That’s when her phone abruptly rang. Her eyes lit up when she answered it and it was Dave. She answered a giddy yes to him.
Halfway through the vows and the crying, I began to think. Why have I been holding this grudge for so long? Clearly no one cares and probably doesn’t even remember. I deserve to happy too. I needed closure and there, I just gave myself some. Easy. The ceremony came to an end and we all headed to the reception. However, since I am the maid of honor I must give a speech. I wrote one, but that's when I wasn’t at peace. It could be filled with hatred and anger. Slowly, I carefully took it out of my purse to throw it away, but suddenly my sister slipped by.
One day i was with my friend and we were riding bikes and a huge pit bull came charging at us and we started to go faster and we were trying to lose him and we went through an ally and a lot of dogs were barking at us and a german shepard jumped a fence and my chain was making a lot of noise and we lost them for awhile and i fixed my chain because it was about to fall of then we were riding back home and they saw us again and we started to pedal as fast as we could so we could lose them and we got in a different place and got lost and the dogs were still chasing us so we splited up and later we couldn't find each other and i called him and he wouldn't answer the phone and at last i saw him and he told me that he had lost his phone so instead
A month later they arrived. It was early morning, the sun wasn’t out. They knocked, yelling for the door to be open. My mom rushed to us, giving us directions. Dad went to get his gun. The house was woken up by screaming and yelling. Then a flash of light, and suddenly, noise. Everywhere there was noise. We screamed.
It was a cold stormy night and I had just arrived home from work. The house was still. I was relaxing in my recliner when I heard a series of knocks at the door. As I came out of the living room the knocks were getting louder and louder. I thought to myself, "Who could be at the door this late at night?" When I opened the door there was a tall man dressed all in black. He smelled of rotten eggs and looked like he just crawled out of a mud pit. His car was having trouble and he needed to use the phone. I invited him in and told him that the phone was down the hall in the kitchen. Instead of calling the tow truck he called his friend, James, to come pick him up. I invited him to have a cup of coffee and some donuts while he waited for his friend to pick him up. We talked for about an hour when there was another knock at the door.
When I was 12 years old, I was sleeping on a coach bus with my family. I was awakened by a strange touch from my step grandfather that terrified me into a silent abyss. In the moment I lost my voice and understanding because my soul jumped out of my now cold body. When it
On May 31st 2013, my best friend and I almost lost our lives. It started off normal just like any other day, my best friend Aundria had come back to Santa Cruz with me and my mom since she lives in San Jose and we were excited for the fun weekend we had planned ahead. That Friday night Aundria and I decided that it would be cool to take my mom’s car out for a spin, so we planned to sneak out through my bedroom window and to take the car. So we waited for my mom to fall asleep then we put the pillows under our blankets and shut off all the lights, and made our way out the window and to her car. Neither I nor Aundria had ever really driven a car before so it was already a scary idea but we did it anyways. We climbed in my mom’s bright red Hummer and