Physics, sleep, physics, sleep. Physics. I shut off the alarm, switched on the light, and grabbed my textbook from my night-table. Today was just the start of another ordinary day of school, and I could not help myself from looking forward to the weekend as I went over Newton’s three laws in my head. As I turned to the next page of my notes, I was startled by the sound of a doorbell. At four o’clock, who could be at the door? Could it just be a simple mistake? The wrong house maybe? My intuition said otherwise; I knew something was wrong. My mother got up out of bed and rushed to the front window. I heard the voices of my father’s friends as my mother let them in. The next thing I knew, I heard my mother crying as the two men tried to console her; my father had passed away. In that instant, I felt as though the ground had been taken from beneath me. Not knowing what to do with myself, I questioned how any of this could have happened. How could he have died? He was only thirty-nine, he was healthy, he was happy. He had just called me from Dubai a few days ago, telling me what a wonderful time he was having and how he might be heading to Nairobi for a couple of days. What could have happened to him from the day of his last phone call to the day he – I paused- I could not even think of saying the next word. Standing at a podium two weeks later in front of all my family and friends, I delivered my father’s eulogy. Holding back my tears, I reflected on all that my father had achieved throughout his life, the wonderful moments we had shared together and all that he had taught me. My dad and I had always shared a special bond, one that went beyond that of a father and daughter. He was my best friend, my inspiration. He allowed me to... ... middle of paper ... ...ng out of the ordinary, we see it as a barrier in the way of our expected paths. As I came to accept my father’s death, I stopped seeing it as a barrier, but as a part of my path. Since I was a little girl, my father had raised me to be a strong-headed, persevering young woman. He always used to tell me that resilience is the key to life. If I could overcome an obstacle or recover from a strong blow, I could do anything. As I was coping with his death, I thought back to all the lessons he had taught me growing up. It was at that moment that I realized what the purpose of my father’s death was. His death was an opportunity for me to test myself on whether I could take all that he had instilled in me and use it when confronted with such an obstacle. I welcomed this challenge, knowing that it was time to show myself what I was made of, time to make my father proud.
Sadly, life is a terminal illness, and dying is a natural part of life. Deits pulls no punches as he introduces the topic of grief with the reminder that life’s not fair. This is a concept that most of us come to understand early in life, but when we’re confronted by great loss directly, this lesson is easily forgotten. Deits compassionately acknowledges that grief hurts and that to deny the pain is to postpone the inevitable. He continues that loss and grief can be big or small and that the period of mourning afterward can be an unknowable factor early on. This early assessment of grief reminded me of Prochaska and DiClemente’s stages of change, and how the process of change generally follows a specific path.
We all deal with death in our lives, and that is why Michael Lassell’s “How to Watch Your Brother Die” identifies with so many readers. It confronts head on the struggles of dealing with death. Lassell writes the piece like a field guide, an instruction set for dealing with death, but the piece is much more complex than its surface appearance. It touches on ideas of acceptance, regret, and misunderstanding to name a few. While many of us can identify with this story, I feel like the story I brought into the text has had a much deeper and profound impact. I brought the story of my grandmother’s death to the text and it completely changed how I analyzed this text and ultimately came to relate with it. I drew connections I would have never have drawn from simply reading this story once.
Monday morning my family and I woke up to some unfortunate news: my great aunt had passed that night. I sat with my mom as my dad told her. The three of us spent a bit of time together talking. Some of it was to reminisce, other parts were to make sure the others were going to be able to handle the rest of our day. All three of us utilized the Jack Gibb’s Pairings of empathy and spontaneity to not only care for one another, but also speak openly and freely about the news.
involved with Hamlet. It seems that no matter whoever gets involved with Hamlet after he finds
“It is perhaps in grief that we discover the force that carried us once again into incarnation, the reason we incarnated in the first place. It is in the tearing open of heart that we discover how guarded our lives have become, how small a cage we have traded off for safe ground. We see how our work is to be more loving, to live more fully in an often confusing world.”
The incident in which death occurs can play a crucial part in how the individual overcomes it. In some cases death can leave an individual traumatized and basically mentally paralyzed for a time being after the incident. The way of overcoming death in these individuals would be to accept it. Accepting death is a positive way of coping. Accepting death consist of understanding that death is a part of life, treasuring the moments and growing from the impact that individual had. However, this may become difficult based on how the incident occurs. The story, “My Mother’s Sin” is a prime example of overcoming death. In this story death plays a critical component. However, it is not death who defines a person; it is how the person fights back after death. The mother, Despinio, in this story had a tough time overcoming death. Despinio never accepted fault in her actions. She had smothered her baby
Through the death of the speaker’s father in the poem, the suffering on behalf of those who survive after a loved one has passed is highlighted in this work. Death has an immense way of obstructing the physical and biological needs of those left in its wake. Using the psychological criticism analysis one can determine that the motivation behind the poem was mourning the death of the father as a means for the speaker to cope so that their own needs for emotional expression, love, and esteem can be
It is hard to give a eulogy for one’s parent. More than the death of a classmate or sibling, the death of a parent is not only a loss, but also a reminder that we are all following an inevitable path. We are all “Outrunning Our Shadow” as her friend Fred Hill so provocatively titled his book.
The author talking about a funeral had a very long lasting affect on me. The author purpose was to make me understand that I should always do the right thing. Using his example of her old teacher, and how she did not want to go, but in the end he realized doing the right thing makes others happy. There were also instances of her saying that she did not want to make her condolences or go to the funeral in general, and I feel anybody can relate to that instance. If I ever have a love one pass away, I hope that all my friends and everybody who knew they would come to the funeral because it truly does mean the world to the family that is going through this.
In our lives, we go through stages of mindset and maturity that naturally coincide with aging. One thing that remains the same, though, through all of these stages, is that eventually, we die; we are completely aware of that as humans. Whether because it’s due to the painful reality that is mortality, our ever-diminishing ability to be wistful and imaginative, or merely the impending coming of the Grim Reaper, our entire lives are, ironic as it is, surrounded by and flooded with death. However, as we grow older, our perception of death changes. It goes from taboo in our young ages to something that begins to surround and eventually consume us as we grow older. Between the poems “For the Anniversary of my Death” by
...this poem exemplifies a journey from innocence to reality over the course of many years. The poem is also the recognition that death is not an endpoint. The shock of death impacted the inexperienced young boy so greatly that he was caused to live an entire life through the eyes of an innocent ten-year-old who did not know of loving or mourning. Until his dream, the narrator was denying of death. One single experience, however supernatural as it may have been, exposed the man to reality and changed his views forever. The knowledge that life can be found within death caused the author to change. He was once unable to "forgive the sad or strange in beast or man," although now he begs for "death's pardon." This poem is the maturation of a close-minded young boy into a loving man. Whether this man can be redeemed from all that he lost in his life, it is unknown.
My grief, my feelings, my emotions were like an untold story that begged to be released, but I shut it all out. But then I read a book called, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, and one of the quotes sort of spoke to me in a way. It was, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story.” And that made me think. It made me realize that I had to deal with my grief, I had to cope. So I did. I wrote stories and poetry about my feelings, I watched tv shows and read a lot of books, all just to cope and deal with my grief. During that time I found out that I loved to read, to write. I found out that I loved to analyze stories as well, whether those stories were in books, movies or tv shows, I loved to analyze them. And later I learned that even though life wasn't fair, I could find a way to make it
Approaching a topic as broad as loss can be a simple step; however, translating one's own attitude and perspective of the common experience can be a complex idea to communicate without a clear and organized transition between thoughts. Bishop's ability to craft this poem about such a variable and poignant concept with the lucidity and emphasis with which she does is evident in her unique use of language and structure.
Imagine growing up without a father. Imagine a little girl who can’t run to him for protection when things go wrong, no one to comfort her when a boy breaks her heart, or to be there for every monumental occasion in her life. Experiencing the death of a parent will leave a hole in the child’s heart that can never be filled. I lost my father at the young of five, and every moment since then has impacted me deeply. A child has to grasp the few and precious recollections that they have experienced with the parent, and never forget them, because that’s all they will ever have. Families will never be as whole, nor will they forget the anguish that has been inflicted upon them. Therefore, the sudden death of a parent has lasting effects on those
I still remember vividly the day my mom, sister, and I found out my dad had passed away. The day was May 28th, 2009. Our local policeman pulled into our driveway and asked to see my mom and me. He then went on to tell us it would be best if we sat down and he spilled the news about my dad. After my father’s passing, I struggled in school. I struggled to understand the point in school and why I needed to learn the things that teachers were trying to teach me. I was fortunate enough to have a very understanding English teacher that just so happened to be my teacher for three years straight from seventh grade into my freshman year of high school. Mrs. Irwin inserted the importance of reading and writing into my life. In Mrs. Irwin’s class, I was able to connect with the book Gym Candy by Carl Deuker which led me to find my own personal tastes in literature.