Erin Geoffrey II: A Hero's Last Three Marriages

Morrie was an old man, and he was dying of ALS or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Mitch Albom was a workaholic who loved his work too much. Mitch had kept a promise to his professor to keep in touch with him, but ever did, and sixteen years later, Mitch turned on the TV one day to find his old professor, Morrie, talking about his final project: death. This sparked Mitch to think about his old professor, and would soon be the inspiration the famous book Tuesdays with Morrie, based on the true story about Morrie’s last lesson, teaching Mitch about life.

He told me a story of a friend he had who had cancer and she made the choice to stop the chemotherapy. Her arms had scabs and she decided enough was enough. She knew she wasn’t going to get better. She talked about death as if she were going to a party. He described how she appeared to be at peace because she lived a fulfilling life. Mr. E felt that she encouraged and motivated him more than he to her.Mr. E felt that the greatest joys of getting older were family and seeing it grow. He also felt that being loved and having others think highly of you were great achievements.Looking back on his life Mr. E felt that the only thing he could have done differently was to be more patient, smarter, more humane and not make as many mistakes. “You look back and think that you were not able to see things that are obvious” (E. Privacy, personal communication, October 10, 2012).

he AIDS hospice reeked from disease and neglect. On my first day there, after an hour of "training," I met Paul, a tall, emaciated, forty-year-old AIDS victim who was recovering from a stroke that had severely affected his speech. I took him to General Hospital for a long-overdue appointment. It had been weeks since he had been outside. After waiting for two and a half hours, he was called in and then needed to wait another two hours for his prescription. Hungry, I suggested we go and get some lunch. At first Paul resisted; he didn’t want to accept the lunch offer. Estranged from his family and seemingly ignored by his friends, he wasn’t used to anyone being kind to him — even though I was only talking about a Big Mac. When it arrived, Paul took his first bite. Suddenly, his face lit up with the biggest, most radiant smile. He was on top of the world because somebody bought him a hamburger. Amazing. So little bought so much. While elated that I had literally made Paul’s day, the neglect and emotional isolation from which he suffered disgusted me. This was a harsh side of medicine I had not seen before. Right then and there, I wondered, "Do I really want to go into medicine?"

To begin, in A Separate Peace, a young boy with the name of Finny passed due to a piece of bone from his leg traveling to his heart. His dear friend Gene appeared to be unphased from Finny’s death. “I did not cry then or ever about Finny. I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family’s strait-laced burial ground outside of Boston. I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral” (194). Gene was not emotionally damaged and hurt because of Finny. Instead, Gene was relieved. A figure he always tried to do better than and wanted to always be better than was finally gone. Gene’s battle that Finny never even

Imagine an elderly man, dying from a grueling disease known as ALS that makes it painful to breathe, unable to walk or stand, and eventually, unable to swallow food. With little money and time left to live he still seems like the happiest man around as he had his family and friends near him at the end with some of life's greatest lessons to teach. Well what if that man was real, and that man’s name was Morrie Schwartz? Morrie Schwartz was a college professor who had retired and then was diagnosed with ALS. An old student of his, Mitch Albom, saw him on TV and decided to visit his old professor on a Tuesday. Pretty soon one Tuesday turned into another, and eventually that turned into 14 Tuesdays until Morrie’s death. During those visits,

Before we can understand the varying fates of these two men we must examine the prior years of life that scripted them. Morrie Schwartz lived for people and the opportunity to welcome them into his heart. He took the time to pursue a relationship with the student that would one day write his dying testimony, he took the time to cultivate a fruitful marriage and he took the time to give his fullest attention to everyone he encountered. Morrie cast off the deceptions of status and wealth, instead devoting himself to his family, his students, and the bouncing rhythms of the dance floor. Above all else, Morrie Schwartz clung to his guiding principle, "love each other or perish" (Mor, 91).

Next, Alex is having a crisis at home. His daughter has a seizure at home during boxing lessons. “Then I told her about the tumor and that she needed to have surgery” (Patterson 93). The gravity of the situation cannot be ignored. It’s like someone is

My father’s presence was the only thing that stopped me.... He was running at my side, out of breath, at the end of his strength, at his wit’s end. I had no right to let myself die. What would he do without me? I was his only support.”

Death is conceptually understood by few, yet experienced by many. Having a multitude of causes, death has devastated many families in various ways. Accidental deaths could be prevented, but sadly are not. In James Hurst’s short story “The Scarlet Ibis,” the narrator was responsible of Doodle’s, his younger brother's, death in the following ways: he pushed Doodle too hard to function normally, he didn't follow the doctor’s clear orders, and he left Doodle in his most desperate time of need. The narrator strove to make Doodle be a normal boy, and this was a massive factor that surrounded his death.

Taylor Has been through a lot her grandfather died and so did her uncle, he died at the age of 29. She never had the chance to say how much she loved them. She always thought “What if I had said something, anything, What if I had the chance to change his outcome but I didn’t, I did nothing I just let it happen.” Now she is afraid of losing her grandmother that would be the end of the 4th of July parties, the christmas get-togethers, the Easter parties, and swimming in her lake when it's burning hot in the summer. But what breaks her heart the most is that her father has cancer. Taylor’s father mean the world to her, He means everything.

Lansing’s house a year earlier. They used to live in a beige house with burgundy trimming, on the left-hand corner of Elm and Garfield. There was somber news that occurred in October of 2013, we found out that he has Lung Cancer but it was on the edge of stage one and going into stage two. Mr. Larson was the almost like uncle to me and always has been kind enough to invite my brother and me over to allow us to play video games, play cards and he did not mind watching us for a few hours until my mother finished fixing dinner. My parents considered him as a very close family friend. Whenever Julia came over for a visit during that time, she would sit down gracefully into the wooden chair before us, while chatting with us over a cup of hot chocolate. She explains that Carter, her husband, would frequently bellow over throwing up constantly and sometimes it would be tinged with blood and then pass out for a couple hours, “I ask his to take his medicine but he will not do it and say he does not need the medicine.” She says in her very concerned tone but her body language read differently, her facial expression and her eye read that she is calm and as if she really has nothing to worry about. Wow, this woman does not even care about her husband, what gives? Julia kept the same story going that he refuses to take his medicine and all, as a result that his cancer has reached stage four by April 2014 and he looks so grim, gravely and very lethargic. His face has sunken in, you can nearly see his bones and he looks like Skeletor from He-Man and he could barely move without assistance and his walker. A couple weeks before he passed away, Julia took him with her to North Carolina, visit another man’s family. The man I speak of is called Eugene, and he just lives off of other women’s money, he cannot keep a job or care to have one. What I heard from other visitors of her house is that while

Despite his affliction, my father was still capable of the occasional moment of clarity. One such moment came on a night not long after their separation. I used to spend every other Friday with him; this was the last time. He and I were sitting around a bonfire he had built in the backyard of the house he was staying at and, as you might expect, he was drinking. Though his typical anger and irritability were replaced with an alarming

father did not die a ‘complete’ death and that haunts him. This pain is shown in a unique way

Today was the death of a dear person close to my heart, Charles Gordon. He was a man who started with nothing but had mere motivation, I was the one who brought death upon this man. I suggested him to a surgery to triple his IQ it worked he was a genius and wrote a masterful research to help his fellow kind. Charles had it all, but it slowly crumbled away. It was hard to watch him deteriorate slowly it had to have been incredibly painful for him to watch himself deteriorate before his eyes. He shunned me and told me to go away I understand why he must’ve hated me and he left for a few months to only return on the brink of death.Search parties were sent after Charles, Mr.Donnegan and Dr.Strauss and Nemur all paid for search parties and kept

For me, knowing that Morrie was not going to be able to live the life he had come accustomed to as easily as he once did was the hardest part. Having to watch made it all the harder. Nonetheless, throughout the process, and as the disease began to consume what was remaining of my dearest love I noticed something oddly weird in how Morrie was handling things. A man whom I was once able to predict down to the shows he wanted to watch and the food he wanted to eat had done it again. In fact, this heroic, wise and ever so brave man had thrown quite the curveball at all of our family. We weren't overly sure of how he would react and we did worry that this would change who he was as a man, but contrary to that prediction we soon found that Morrie had only been made more wise. Seeing him progress mentally, and watching him acquire knowledge and intuition far beyond my greatest comprehension was more than enough to make the loss of his life as easy as it could be. Rather than sulk, our family provided support in