Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: funeral

  • A brief life

    Andrea Eisenberg Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, United States I felt his legs wiggling in the sac of warm fluid surrounding him. His body was so tiny, his kicks were like a feather passing across my fingers. But his warm, dark world was about to slip away. Did he already sense it? Or did he swim peacefully, oblivious…

  • On the banks of the Ganges

    Susan BeckFort Collins, Colorado, United States She told me how her brother diedin a screaming instant of metal and splintering windshield.She told me in the silence of the exam room,my brain let goof Latin names, syndromes,the architecture of molecules,which way sodium, and potassiumflow across the ghostly cell membrane. Prayers meant for the ears of gods…

  • After the funeral

    Terri EricksonLewisville, North Carolina, United States Poet’s statement When my brother was killed in a tragic accident before his 21st birthday, the anguish I felt was unbearable. Watching my parents, particularly my mother, mourn the loss of their only son was almost worse. In retrospect, it seems that the emotional agony of losing a child…