Tag: Death and Dying
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Unfettered grief
Lealani AcostaNashville, Tennessee, United States My first glimpse of unfettered grief was through shaggy six-year-old bangs, watching my mother weep, hunched over the toilet and framed by moonlight that cast the pale blue tiles of their master bathroom into darkness. I glimpsed that grief again as a second-year neurology resident, with my long, black hair…
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Ushers of life
Genevieve KupskyWashington, D.C., USA “You are on holy ground. Time is sacred, and the veil is thin.” The chaplain left the newly-oriented volunteers with these words as we completed our training. My mind was spinning with the implications of this experience. Each patient we interacted with would have a prognosis of six months to live…
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La Pieta
Rachel FleishmanPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States A mother holds her dead child. His body flops open without resistance, freshly dead. His head is cocked back, shoulder lifted, arms release the last vestige of grip. Her face sullen, her hand beside him open and offering, she holds but does not touch her son. A single moment of…
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Death and dying
Tolani OlonisakinPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Six weeks after I turned eighteen, I lost my father. I was told he died of a cardiac arrest. One minute he was reading the morning paper, and the next minute he lay sprawled across the living room floor, lifeless and inanimate. I had not seen the man in two years;…
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My mom’s death
Kristen EricksonUrbana-Champaign, Illinois, United States My mom, Tracey, died just over nine years ago at the age of 39. I had just turned 16. Diagnosed with glioblastoma in July 2001, my mother’s last six months were filled with surgeries, infections, and radiation treatments. She rapidly declined in strength, followed by confusion and death. Since then,…