Matesi-Glass Castle: Overcoming My Life

Losing a grandparent at the age of 11 and younger was hard enough but losing one at the age of thirty-five hurt just as much. My grandmother is still living, I wasn't as close to them as I was to my other grandparents but there was still a relationship that was built throughout my lifetime. I had the chance to visit my grandfather while he was in the hospital. Regretfully when I went to see him he was too ill to have a conversation with, but my grandmother reassured me that it was ok because he knew I was there. My grandfather was cremated, this was the first time I attended a funeral where I saw a box of ashes holding someone who I loved. His funeral consisted our close family members and my grandfather's remains were placed in a mausoleum. His death affected all of us in one way or another, this was the first time I saw my dad cry. It makes me sad that he is no longer with us but glad he is no longer

“The Glass” by Sharon Olds is an autobiographical piece which outlined one of the most memorable events for the author as she witnessed her father dying of cancer. Although the poem is about her father, her father is placed as an auxiliary character to the glass that he continuously spits up his phlegm and mucus into. The contents of the glass are described in gruesome detail while her father is slowly withering away beside it quietly. The author had a tumultuous relationship with her father as he had abused her as a child and she even has an entire collection dedicated to her feelings towards him, aptly titled The Father. The titular glass's function in Sharon Olds' poem "The Glass" is to replace the author's dying father as the new center of the universe because the glass now contains the father's life, thus shedding the once godlike image in the author's life.

My grandpa went through many of those events in life, but mainly with his sons and daughters. Most of my aunts and uncles on my father's side died from unnatural causes. Such causes of their deaths were from abusive relationships, alcoholism, plague (pollio) and organ failures. The main point is, it ought to be heartbreaking to see your children become deceased before your time is up. Throughout the twelve kids, only three survived to live till this very day. As for devastating, my grandfather's main treasure was my grandmother. My grandparents were married for seventy years. They raised, provided for them and together fought hard times. My  grandfather's heart was completely shattered with her death. She had been the only one there for him in life to take care of him. With my grandmother recently deceased, family turned against my grandpa and everything went wrong. His last daughter that lived began to steal his money and his wife's jewelry. His youngest son with his wife tried to take over the house and together tried to put the only son that was helping him in jail, my father. In the end, my grandpa sold his most valued house and stood away from his son and daughter. He lost everything that meant a lot to him, the house, his kids and his

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

After reading The Glass Castle, I soon realized how blessed my life is. It is hard to imagine having such an arduous childhood and troubled family life. The way you found happiness and positivity in the most failed situations astounds me. Even though our lives couldn’t be more different, I was able to connect some many ideas and feelings you had growing up. However, other situations were too different from my situation to allow me to find a connection.

Having a close relationship with three of my grandparents, as well as being present during each of their dying processes, has greatly shaped my view of death. Death has a way of causing us to reflect. Death causes each of us to reflect on the life that is ending as we know it, to reflect on our lives and to reflect on the legacy we want to leave behind when it becomes our time. Having the

After doing my research I could finally see how my family were trying to cope with our family’s loss. My sister’s signs were mostly withdrawl. She would into her world of music or go walking by herself to help ease the pain of her grief. With my mother, grandmother, uncle, and aunts, they were having isolated mental breakdowns where no one could see them, turnings towards cigarettes and alcohol, or bottling up their emotions inside them rather than accepting the reality and seeking help. All of this was due to to my grandfather’s death. He was a huge part in all of our lives and he seem to touch everyone of family member somehow and someway. My grandfather was seen by my family’s household daily but realizing that we won’t see him anymore was taking its toll on

My grandpa died of Cardiac Arrest, where a sudden stop of blood flow fails due to the heart. At that time that I received the news from my family in Guatemala, I didn’t know how to react. Whether I should be sad and cry or stay quiet and give my condolences. All I knew is that it really hurt my family and they wanted to be with him. My grandma thought of something, booking a flight to Guatemala as soon as possible for his funeral. She decided to take me, my aunt and cousin. They were the only ones who really wanted to go in my family living in Los Angeles.

I, however, did not cope with death too well. The moment when I found out about my grandmothers death is something I remember like it was yesterday. Let me start from the beginning.

A week before my party my grandfather had a heart attack. This was a difficult time for me and my family because we did not know what was happening exactly nor what to do. Instantly like many would've done I was on the verge of cancelling my party. My grandfather begged me not to, he wanted nothing more then for me to have my big day. Being that he lives out of the country and was sick he was not able to join us on this day. Although the night followed through it wasn't the same as it would have been. I get did get that one dance with him which is saddened me the most. This situation brought a different type of understanding to my attention. It taught me that in life you have to be selfless in order to establish your own true happiness. I got all of that from such a sad situation because my dreams could been ruined but, my grandfather made everything possible. My grandfather’s way of being with me is my reasoning behind everything I do. He has given me anything I needed in life regardless of the means necessary and best of all he taught me to be

Upon deciding this, immediately, different emotions were present. I started off very optimistic and elated on the calming effects the project would bring. While writing my five original pieces and working on creating the website, I often felt waves of sadness and even began to tear up as I presented pieces of the project to my peers and even the students in my class. Upon completing the project, I began to feel at ease and felt as my grandmother were alive, she would be very proud of the life decisions I am making. The time has come to now present the final project to my father and my father’s side of the family. I am apprehensive of the different emotions that will be presented. Yet, at the same time, my continual hope is that my family continues to find comfort and solace even though we continue to mourn the loss of our matriarch.

Though some may say, myself included, that the death of a family member is one of the hardest, toughest, traumatic things to deal with, it also comes with a good side. That good side is that it brings people together to not only mourn over a loss, but to celebrate the life of someone great. One can either sink from a situation like this, or one can rise. I feel like my family and I chose to rise from this. We were all changed in so many ways. My grandma, Veronica, was especially changed the most. She and my granddad did absolutely everything together. They

Losing my grandmother was one of the worst things that have happened to me. When she died, I knew my life had changed. I watched her take her last breath in the hospital and it was very heartbreaking. She was like my second mom because she was always with me. I didn’t think it would come so soon. Dealing with her death was one of the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do. It was very hard because it was my second experience of losing someone very close to me around the same time of the year. I had to learn how to cope with losing her. I let all my emotions out, I didn’t listen to what anyone was saying, and I had to remember to take care of myself. Losing my grandmother changed me because she did everything for me. I had to grow up and be more responsible. I had to learn how

In spite of this painful occurrence happening to me at twenty-four years of age, emotions such as shock, anger, and guilt, came into play creating chaos. I rerun her death in my mind, yet unable to completely forget the sadness, similar to a synopsis. These feelings can be frightening and overwhelming; however I have learned how to cope and with the realization that life and death are phenomenal both intertwined. I speculate that when one passes on they continue to be

October 10th, 2013 at 7:30pm. The day of my grandma death. The day that changed my life forever. The day I will never forget. My grandma was my everything, she was the lady who raised me since I was born. I never had a mother or father, the only person who cared for me was my grandma. The day my grandma died I was in my senior year of high school and I had just came home from cheerleading practice. That was an unusual day for me because when I woke up that morning my grandma wasn't up cooking breakfast like she usually does she was in her bed asleep still. I looked outside and the sun was just rising. I went in her room that morning before I left for school and said these exact words, "Good morning grandma if you’re not feeling well, I could stay home with you and take you to the doctor." In a raspy low voice my grandma replied, "Good morning sweetie I'm okay I was just feeling a little sick this morning but I'm better now. You better get to school now before you are late.” Okay, Grandma Love you, call me if you need me", I replied. On my way to school all I thought about was why my grandma sounded like that this morning and how she wasn't up doing her normal routine. I have never seen my grandma get sick before. She was always the one taking care of me making sure I was okay. But I just pushed the feeling over just thinking my grandma was okay and I was just overthinking. I should've stayed home that day. I should've noticed that my grandma really was sick.