Facing Terminal Illness
In the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom you see the struggle and courage of a man who is dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which basically eats away your muscles. You see his loved ones say their goodbyes and Morries dedication to make his mark in the world and wanted to leave something behind when he passed away. You see Morrie embrace his illness and use his days left as an advantage which many of people have a hard time doing.
When Beth came in she spoke about her husband who died of cancer. She discussed how Erik’s body changed through out the whole situation. Erik didn't want to visit a doctor. He just thought that his body would heal itself. It became so bad that he couldn't even sleep laying down he had to sleep bent over. Erik for the longest time didn't want to admit that he was ill, his family didn't even use words like death, because it was uncomfortable to even say it. In this situation you see the struggle of admitting that you are sick and that you are going to die sooner then you ever expected.
Being Sick
When someone is sick the first thing that a person would normally do is go to the doctor. The doctor would then check to see if you have a sore throat, ear infection, and high temp, ETC. These are the normal aspects of trying to get your body healthy, and back to normal. I interviewed my grandmother who visits the doctor at least once a week, I asked her why does she always go to the doctors and she said because she wants to live as long as she can, and watch her grandkids grow-up, get married and have their kids. People seriously trust their lives in strangers hands and expect them to do whatever they can to keep you alive. But when you actually think about it how can you fully trust these people. I heard a story on the TV show Doctors about a women who was having pain on her ovary and she talked to her doctor and visited multiple times because of pain and he just blew it off and said it was nothing, she went to another doctor and she found out she had a cyst that grew into a tumor and it was too late to do anything, she died later to ovarian cancer. This type of stuff scares me because why should I trust anyone with my life.
The process of dying
When my grandmother passed away she was on life support for about 3 days. During the last day or two days we went to the local funeral home and we started planning the funeral. It was very hard planning her death when she was semi alive. I hoped, dreamed, and prayed for her to get back to normal and just take her back home. We took her off life support because my family and I thought it was inhumane. After we took her off the next time I saw her was in the funeral home. We had The Wake for two or three days where everyone would pay their resects and visit her body, and prey over her. The priest came and talked about her as if he knew her, then he discussed her going to heaven and drinking tea with Jesus. When I heard this I couldn't get it out of my mind. I then thought about what would my grandmother say if she heard that. She would definitely say, " I would rather be with my family and eat a bug Italian feast". After the priest talked we proceeded to the cemetery, where my step-grandfather is buried. I thought that it was very sweet that she wanted to be next to him. I didn't think that they had that kind of relationship. Every once a month we try and visit her grave, although I can't remember the last time I was there. I just don't like to say I visited her when all I did was stare at a stone with her name on it and the day she was born and the day she died. I also think I don't visit it because its hard for me to see that and say that’s my grandma. The normal aspects of dying is planning their funeral where everyone would come see pray and then go to the cemetery where they will be buried, and later visit their grave ever so often.
