This chapter hit on a number of topics that I have and am
currently going through. Throughout my
childhood I had a very strong attachment to an aunt on my father's side of the
family. She would let me spend time in
her house just drawing and coloring if it was something that I wanted to
do. My aunt gave me the best gifts in
comparison to my parents as she gave things that were more focused on
creativity rather than name brand items.
I learned how to crochet from her, helped her make homemade play dough,
and made cookies with her. She allowed
me the time to do whatever I felt I wanted to do and fostered my creativity
unlike my mother who pushed me to excel academically. The lessons I learned from her highly reflect
the lessons we learn about living from
those who are dying in the chapter (Corey & Corey, 2010).
My aunt
was diagnosed with renal cancer and chose to live at home after spending time
in a hospital for too long. Hospice care
was able to have my aunt return home to spend time with family and friends as
her condition began to worsen (Corey & Corey, 2010). I still remember the last evening I spent
with her sitting alongside her bed while massaging lotion onto her hands. At this point in time she was not talking,
but just being in her presence was able to make me feel ok. I was only ten years old at the time, and my
parents called to let me know that I needed to return home because it was
getting late. We were neighbors and as I
got up to walk home I had the feeling that this would be the last night I would
get to spend with her. I told her that I
loved her and gave her a kiss goodbye.
As I walked into my parent's home, the telephone rang with the hospice
worker that night informing my father that my aunt had passed away.
Another
part of this chapter that was relevant to something I had gone through in my
life was the section on suicide (Corey & Corey, 2010). I was in my first year of my old graduate
school when I received a phone call from my father informing me that my sister
was in the hospital. She had been living
with her boyfriend at the time that ended in an altercation where my sister
ingested a number of painkillers. She
was under constant monitoring as her heart rate was atypical. Luckily, my sister was able to be discharged
from the hospital after a week, but my mother did not want her to return home
because she was "too messy" and did not "clean up after
herself."
When I was told my sister would not have somewhere to
live, I immediately told them that she would come to live with me at my
apartment. We lived together for two
years while I attended school there. I
helped her get into a community college and a job in the area. It was a time that she needed to develop a
new identity for herself, and she has thanked me numerous times for giving her
that chance. She now lives in
Philadelphia, is pursuing education to become a nurse, and enjoys her life to
the fullest.
Corey, G. & Corey, M. S. (2010). Death and Loss. In Brooks/Cole (9th edition), I Never Knew I Had a
Choice (338-370). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
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