A Single Shot to the Head

Stephanie Clifford’s A Shot to the Heart tells the story of Peter Forcelli, a Bronx detective that had arrested and convicted Edward Garry, an innocent man. Garry was charged with the robbery of Irene’s New Hope Grocery and the murder of retired NYPD officer Oswald Potter. When the robbery occurred, Potter attempted to stop the robbery when shouting, “I am a police officer” and knocking a suspect to the ground. Later gunshots were heard coming from the grocery store as two suspects fled the scene. Potters was found collapsed in a car with a single gunshot wound to the chest and later was pronounced dead at a hospital. Forcelli the explains that the arrival of a new system called CompStat and the murder of a police officer created an immense pressure to solve the case as quickly as possible. Basing their arrest off two unconfident eyewitnesses who picked Garry out of a line up, without any physical evidence or even a confession. Not long after Forcelli joined the A.T.F. where he soon developed his interest in pursuing wrongful convictions. His new passion had reminded him of Edward Garry’s case and the idea that a man was convicted on such little evidence made him sick. Forcelli then made it his goal to exonerate Garry, an innocent man serving a life sentence. Forcelli then notes the difficulty of freeing an innocent man from his sentence is much more difficult than convicting him in the first place.

Bullet in the Brain is a short story about a sarcastic book critic, who allows his criticism to extend to his everyday life and soon learns why that is not a good idea.

So as we as an individual person are dealing with our feelings and the shock of this suicide is now 3-5 days old, now we have to deal with and face this tragic senseless event again and be effected by other people in the same boat we are now in. So follow me know as we look at what comes

The experience of a person losing a loved one is very difficult to accept and then cope with. “He gets all teary telling about the good times they had together, how her brother made the war seem almost fun.” pg. 67-68 (Tim O’Brien). Losing someone close to you is hard to accept because once their gone things don’t feel the same anymore and you just can’t stop thinking about them and the memories you guys shared together. It’s also very hard to cope with because you’re so used to having that person around and when their no longer there you feel so empty and that feeling is so horrible. Having to deal with the fact that someone who was so special to you is no longer there isn’t easy to accept.

After several weeks of my Grandmother passing, I came to realize she wasn’t coming back. The feeling of shock had left and now I felt intense amount of emotional suffering. The continuous feeling of pain and unanswered questions lingered about in my mind. I began to wonder how it could have happened and what people could have done differently. At this time, my whole family was grieving over the loss as well.

The personal essay, Variations on Grief, by Meghan Daum is about how she tried to cope with the death of a dear friend of hers, Brian Peterson. At first, she attempted to deal with her loss by detaching herself from it and pretending that it didn’t affect her, but she soon discovered that she couldn’t escape reality in that manner.. As Brian’s parents came to rely on her for support, she felt obligated to lie to them about his life because it felt easier than telling the truth. At the same time, she had to deal with her own confused emotions and endeavored to convince herself that Brian had died because he simply wasn’t capable of living. When I first read Daum’s essay, I couldn’t quite understand her reaction to Brian’s death.

Last year I suffered deep depression from seeing Mike Brown’s body repeatedly on the news, lying in the streets with blood running from his body while his mom and dad stand by crying and suffering and not being allowed to approach his body. I had flashbacks of walking up to my daughter after being a victim of a random drive by shooting, lying in a puddle of blood where she was shot. My outcome was not that of the parents of Mike Brown, my daughter died in surgery. The pain of losing a child whether it is a random act of violence or due to an illness, the pain is the same.

I could hear muted sobs as friends and family members began lashing out in tears. Yet, I stood still as ever as memories with my best friend began flashing in my head. I was best friends with a girl who lived right next door to me since birth. We told secrets and laughed with one another since the day I can recall my earliest memory as a child. It was unfortunate to see it all come to an end now that she was gone. All I saw was her lifeless body slowly turning pale on a stretcher stationed on her living room floor. This was one of those moments that makes you question how quickly life can take an unexpected turn. I wasn't willing to accept that

Analyse theories of loss and grief in respect of their relevance for social work practice Both grief and loss are an inevitable part of human existence and are at the heart of life and growth (Walter and McCoyd, 2009). Some losses are painful and consequently trigger grief, however some losses are natural and a part of development, such as maturation, and usually seen as progression but can also present as a loss. An element of social work is to assist service users in their growth, for example from childhood into adolescence, and offer support through difficult losses. Loss can occur within a wide spectrum of experiences; such as death and bereavement; loss of identity - for example losing something defining, for instance faith or religion;

This course has taught me that it is difficult to say goodbye to the ones we love. The struggle to separate from the deceased occurs because we have a strong attachment with them. The grief response and expression for every individual is unique (Winokuer & Harris, 2012, p. 26). Thus, I cannot expect my clients to grieve in a similar manner. It is also important for a counsellor to identify what stage in the grief process the client is in. Although, there are many models of grief stages, they all follow similar midpoints. These midpoints are accepting the loss, dealing with the emotions surrounding the loss, creating a reason for the loss, finding a way to continue to live without the loved one, and creating an everlasting bond with the deceased.

killed in a fiery crash. I felt awful hearing such heartbreaking news. I was clueless on how to respond

The passing of a loved one is a universal experience and every person will experience loss or heartache, at some point in their life. Some people obviously appear upset, some do not, grief is individual, dependent on; age, gender, development stage, personality, their normal stress reactions, the support available, their relationships or attachments, other death experiences, how others react to their own grief around them (Thompson & Hendry, 2012).

Another thing brought on by Williams death was it made me think of a very good friend of mine who took his own life the very same way Williams did. The suicide of my friend Nick who was only 25 years old happened only 10 months earlier. He hanged himself as well at home in his bedroom. It was hard being remembered of that when the grief I felt for my friend wasn't too far

Now I can say that I had never understood others suffering from a bad loss of a dear person.  I would hate to hear that anybody died. When this happened to me, when my dear mother died, I started to understand all those people who lost someone they loved. There are perhaps no proper words to describe this pain, This intolerable pain which tears you apart, which is like a stone on your heart, and which make tears run down your face with each moment spent with the dear person who passed away. Time is unlikely to pass so fast this hurt, no matter what others claim.

From the first time it never got easier. There were still times when my dad would walk in on me crying. Everyone has a heart break in their life. Mine just so happened to be the one I thought would never leave, and the one I had planned my future with. July 16th, 2016 was the first day Brandon came to hangout with me, and the day i knew would change everything for me. Honestly, there was no other excitement in the world that could top the way my heart raced that day. He pulled up to the driveway in a black dodge megacab. Not knowing what how the night would play out I quietly jumped in the truck and we started a very basic conversation and surprisingly we both couldn't stop smiling. We headed to champaign to go to the car demolition since his family was running in it. That night after the demo’s we went to his house and he had talked me into sitting down right beside him so he could ask me to be his girlfriend, and of course i said yes. Looking back now I should’ve said no.