When it comes to death i experienced a lot. Coming up from my family when someone dies in our family you should always pay your respects to that person. A majority of my family members who have passed away has always held an awake or some sort and most of them have been in Spanish. In the Hispanic culture they are very religionist based especially coming together with god and heaven. When my grandfather passed away, i remember so many people being there who i didn't even know you knew me which was the weird part. I feel like whenever someone in your family passes away, it brings all these people together who don't even know just for that one person. It feels kind of awkward and weird. Looking at him in the coffin was so unnatural just by the fact it wasn't "him". When i visited him in the hospital and saw his body there, it was completely different seeing him all dressed up.
I noticed many things throughout my life during the death experiences i had. Why is that people must always all black when attending a funeral home? Why is that particular color a "sign"? Another thing is that awakes last so many hours. Why spend so many hours looking a dead person if it's going to make you cry even more? Growing up i only heard of cremation and buried. I never really heard of other techniques being used for the dead unless in the perspective of a different country. A lot of people when they bury someone they day that they died, they tend too forget about them later on. Its as if only that die was the most important and the other days don't matter. Lot of dead people are often forgotten later on in life.
Looking at the birth unit and the care of the dead unit they are very simliar in some aspects by the fact they a re sensitive topics. When a woman is pregnant you are suppose to be sensitive towards her and gentle because of the fact she is having a baby. It is very sacred. With a dead person, you are very sympathetic by the fact someone has died to that person and to other people as well. Both are overwhelming topics. Hopefully throughout this unit i will be able to learn more other perspectives from other people as well as Andy.
Leah,
ReplyDeleteI wish I could express more empathy with this post but, I have not had as many care of the dead experiences as you have had. Nonetheless, I admire your courage to describe how you felt while looking at your grandfather's dead body in line 9 of paragraph 1, "Looking at him in the coffin was so unnatural just by the fact it wasn't 'him'. When I visited him in the hospital and saw his body there, it was completely different seeing him all dressed up." I would've have liked your writing much more if you had defined what unnatural was and gave your reasoning for putting the word him in quotation marks. Why was the dead body no longer the the person you once you knew? This is an important question to ask because it puts the reader in perspective on terms of the definitions you establish, which will make your thoughts more concise.
In light of other aspects of your posts, I like the fact that you bring up several interesting questions. However, instead of listing one after another, spend some time focusing on one specific question so your thoughts are more insights than bubbles.
One thing that I must stress is Proofreading. Proofreading will do wonders to writing. Little grammatical errors will do no justice to your writing so, please watch out for those small errors (i.e. basic punctuation, spelling mistakes, and incorrect noun usage) - Clarify who you are talking about in each sentence, "then"is vague when a group of people is not mentioned before the "then." Also, work on your transitions so your writing is more coherent.
Nice work. I hope that you take my feedback to heart and I'll be glad to read your future posts.
Bianca
Leah,
ReplyDeleteYour most beautiful line was, " Looking at him in the coffin was so unnatural just by the fact it wasn't "him." I know exactly how you feel due to personal experience, I know the undertakes and funeral home people try and do their best to make the dead look as 'alive' as possible, but frankly they just don't get the job done. The lipstick, no movements, the way the skin feels is all so fake. Your post brought up several interesting points and questions which I enjoyed.
As far as improvement goes you definitely should consider proofreading more. It really can make a difference. You should try doing you blog assignments in a word document since their spell check is much better and they catch more things than blogger does.
I will be reading you blogs a lot so I will know if you didn't take my advice seriously. Good job and take advantage of the feedback.