I Am A Big Sign At San Diego Zoo

Something in my stomach was telling me I would not see him. I did not tell anyone this though just in case I was wrong. But I was right I always have a way of knowing these things. He heard a knock on the door. A feeling of relief washed over everyone except me. The person at the door was the only policeman in town and Frank the town leader. My mom could not keep it together. It is a hard sight to see when your mom is sad. The person you look up to when you are a kid is crying. That can mess a 6 year old kid up. The time that would take place next went from 0 to 100 so fast. We cremated my dad's body and moved. My mom picked texas because it had good schools. We did not have any family though and sometimes I felt as if that was a bad decision. My mother would not tell me how my dad died until I was 16. Not living without a dad can be hard. When it is at the crucial age of 6. You need a good role model. My brother became my dad if he liked it or not. Everything that happened in my life seemed like a blurr. The fact my dad was dead never really hit me. But it hit me so hard and so fast. It was like a brick wall. I started almost failing my classes, sleeping all the time, eating a lot, not exercising, moping all the time. I still suffer from it today. Back then though I wanted to die. But it is so much better. I learned that I held my mom accountable and my dad for

There is one loss in my life that affected many aspects of my life for many years, the divorce of my parents. I was in barley entering the first grade and the tender age of five, soon to turn six, when my parents spent their last night as a married couple. I do not have many memories of my parents as a couple but I do remember the day my Daddy left. He was a policeman and I watched as his cruiser drove away from our family home. I remember my mom crying and not being willing to console me or explain to me what was happening. All I knew is there was a fight, my dad left, it seemed different than other times when he left, and my mom was crying. Everything about my life changed in the blink of a five year old’s eyes which is what makes this loss so significant in my life.

Imagine coming home from middle school to your grandmother house on your mother’s side to find it unusually quiet and everyone with tears in their eyes. Imagine being told your father had a routine surgery but nothing was routine about the results. Imagine having thanksgiving dinner with your family and the phone rings then you hear a loud scream and feet running towards you to let you know your father has died. Imagine going to school the following weeks and hearing jokes that your dad died because “the turkey was dry”, “He choked on a chicken bone”, and “He wanted to leave your mom”. I did not have to imagine because it became my reality at the age of 13.

My grandmother, who is the mother of my mom, passed away due to heart failure at the age of 87. Since I was 6 or 7 she had been living in our house. The reason for that was, my grandfather, that I was named after passed away a year before I was born, so she was alone, and she was starting to get old. Since she lived with us for so many years, she had been a very important figure in my life. I can honestly say that she was like a 3rd parent for me, and losing her, made me fell horrible and helpless. I witnessed how real death is because of her passing. Combined with puberty, my grief caused me to become depressed for a long time. As I’m looking back it sounds really extreme, but there were some days that I did not even leave the bed thinking that there was no point to our existence. Thanks to some psychological counselling however, I was able to overcome that mental

Each year thousands of teenagers experience the death of someone they love. When a parent, sibling, friend, or relative dies, teens feel the overwhelming loss of someone who helped shape their -fragile self-identities. Caring adults, whether parents, teachers, counselors or friends, can help teens during this time. If adults are open, honest and loving, experiencing the loss of someone loved can be a chance for young people to learn about both the joy and pain that comes from caring deeply for others. There are many common reactions to trauma, grief, and bereavement among teens. First of all, shock and denial. Feeling numb, stunned and dazed are healthy and normal reactions. Often, it is difficult to “take in” information. The grieved may

Losing someone who is close to you, usually happens to everyone. The difference between people when this situation occurs is how you live after it has happen. My six word memoir was “looking up and hoping you’re there”. My aunt unexpectedly passed away last year in April. No one really understood and to be honest, I still don’t understand why this would happen. I got called up to the office, and my mom picked up my brother and I. She was taking us to the hospital to see her. I didn’t know what state she was in. Then we were brought to the Critical care unit, my heart sunk because I knew this wasn’t good. I prayed and prayed to God that it this wasn't true. By the time we got there, she was considered brain dead. A little background with my

A Journey in Grief: A Mothers Experience Following the Death of her Daughter by Alice W. Terry describes how the loss of someone so dear to you is unimaginable. When I was thirteen I lost my grandmother. She had been sick for a long time; I remember going to visit her in the hospital many times before she passed. The death of my grandmother was my first and only personal experience with the loss of a family member. Although this reality makes it hard for me to relate to this article at a personal level, I am truly grateful for the health and well being of those closest to me. Only being thirteen at this time, I was old enough to comprehend what had happened but I had not been old enough to truly experience the sorrow of losing someone. When I lost my grandmother, all I remember doing is crying. Although I was expressing emotion and grieving her loss, I do not remember having a conversation about what happened. How was I feeling? What is going through my head? Looking back now, it is frustrating to accept the fact that no one truly knew how to comfort me.

As a kid, you’re not supposed to experience true sadness, or that’s what I thought. Losing one of the few people that care for you is one of the toughest things to handle, especially when you’re little. You know they’re gone, but yet you still feel like they’ll always be a part of you.

Sadly six months later, my father passed away on February 20, 2009. He was fishing alone on the Gulf of Mexico when his kayak flipped and he drowned. Helicopters and scuba teams led by Texas Equusearch searched the area for six long days before his body was recovered. I was eleven years old at the time of the

The young mind is a wonderful thing, however the concept of losing someone so dearly loved and cherished can be difficult to understand;

I was absolutely devastated when I got the news, because he was always there when I needed someone, and he was always willing to listen to the pointless drama my family and I ramble on about. His death was really hard for me to accept, because I had just started to get really close to him before he got sick. My Poppa was admitted into the hospital when he began to have issues with his breathing, and things just went downhill from there. He never went out anymore, and we hardly ever got to see him after he got sick. I still remember the day I got told he passed away. I just got a new haircut, and then my braces got put on. My mom said we were going to go see him that night, but we got held up at an event and never made it over to his house. The next day, my sister and I were sitting at the kitchen table when my dad came into the house. Immediately I could tell something was wrong because my dad had a long face, and he looked drained. He told us that he had some terrible news. I automatically thought he had gotten fired from his job, because I didn’t want to think about the worst possible thing that could have happened. My dad told us the news and I broke down almost instantly. I didn’t know what to do, because whenever something bad happened I would call him and he would tell me how to handle it. My family and I have grown a lot from this experience, we are closer now, and we confide in each

A week after the occurance I attended the first funeral I had ever been to. I couldn't help but think how unfair it was to his parents; they shouldn't have had to bury their own child. Afterwards, I started seeing a counselor. She recommended a local support group with other kids who were going through the same thing. Getting to listen to their stories and what they had to say helped me grasp what was happening. I wasn't in denial anymore, I was accepting the fact of death. I believe that my ability to listen and empathize with others helped me get through the horrible place I was in. I definitely was in a depressed state of

Dad and I grew apart after that. We just drowned in our sorrows, too far away to help each other up. And just two months after Mom’s death, Dad went. “Suicide” they called it. It was murder. No matter how desperate or depressed he was, Dad would never kill himself. He wouldn’t leave his only child behind, letting them slowly die by themselves from the pain. Dad would never.

I once again got over his death just like I did Uncle Jerod and Great Grandpa. I started focusing on the positives of their lives. In a small town like mine, word goes around very quickly about deaths. I am used to hearing “Sorry about your death.”. It was just something that I got used to, I also learned how to tense myself up as well. I learned how to really mourn for someone, not by crying but to tell others about what they really loved and the happy moments you had for one

Jaida Freeman Dr. Halpin English Comp 1101 11 November 2014 Human Nature Humans are very unique in every way possible. We, as humans, endure much criticism, grief, emotions, and much more in our everyday lives. In Judith Butler’s short essay, she critiques sexual autonomy and its limits on humans. Butler states that “Somewhere in the answer we find ourselves not only committed to a certain view of what life is, and what it should be, but also of what constitutes the human, the distinctively human life, and what does not” (114). A question that we all ask is what does it mean to be human?