Tag: death
-
Memento mori in medicine
Stephanie Jiang Toronto, Ontario, Canada Dance of Death. Leaf by Michael Wolgemut from The Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493. Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is easy to believe that humankind’s greatest fear is death. From our humble beginnings to now modern-day society, we have learned that Death will always chase us. Few professions explore our mortality…
-
Reclamation
Natalie Perlov Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States “Tell them you love them.” Photo by Neil Moralee on Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Like many people, my first experience with death was losing a grandparent. I remember my parents organizing my late grandfather’s affairs, noting our religious practice of having as few people as possible touch the…
-
Keeping corpses company
Nater Akpen Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria Photo by cottonbro on Pexels Inspired by an error where he had misjudged the time since death—not by hours or days—by 112 years,1 William Bass set up the Anthropological Research Facility in Tennessee. His request to his dean was simple: Give me some land to put dead bodies on.…
-
Saying goodbye
Anthony Papagiannis Thessaloniki, Greece “A walk into life’s sunset.” Photo by author. Her head is bald, her face pale. Only a couple of weeks have passed since her latest cycle of chemotherapy, which imposed its ravages but offered no benefit. The disease is marching relentlessly ahead, the survival horizon drawing closer each day. She…
-
O Child! My Child!
Alice Ranjan Redmond, Washington, USA A woman personifying night carries two babies over the land, representing sleep and death. Etching by F. Bartolozzi, 1764, after Annibale Carracci. Wellcome Collection. Public domain. O Child! My Child! Enter did you, into this world, incarnadine and warm. But when I held you in my arms, you did…
-
Farewell, dear pictures that I have loved so well
For nearly two decades Cardinal Jules Mazarin was the de facto ruler of France and the most powerful person in Europe. Born in Italy in 1602, he worked as a Papal diplomat but offered his services to Cardinal Richelieu and moved to Paris in 1640. When Richelieu died in 1642, he acted as the head…
-
Please don’t die in the hospital
Alexandra DeFelice Falls Church, Virginia, United States “Dead Flowers” by John Brighenti on Flickr. CC BY 2.0. I don’t like the way people die in the hospital. I don’t like the color schemes, the paleness that seeps into every empty wall, every window shade, every floor tile; every cafeteria counter, every elevator sign,…
-
The pyramids of Petach Tikvah
Simon Wein Petach Tikvah Dead bodies may be burned, buried, left for carrion animals,1 dropped into the sea, mummified, made into fertilizer or diamonds,2 or sent to universities to be dissected. However, there are several reasons why in many cultures the dead are buried in cemeteries and mausoleums: Respecting the dead focuses survivors on…
-
The grieving one: on the death of a spouse
Paul Rousseau Charleston, South Carolina, United States “A real experience of death isolates one absolutely. The bereaved cannot communicate with the unbereaved.” – Iris Murdoch, An Accidental Man, 1971 ‘Alone’ holds the word ‘one.’ Photo by Javier Ocampo Zuluaga on Pixabay. After the death of a spouse, we are al(one). ____ One pillow…