The Funeral Was Short And Sweet

When you think of losing a grandparent in your life, you think of them passing away. You dread the day you will get the call that they are sick. You then begin to cherish all the moments you have with them leading up to their passing. You have time to except their sickness, and come to terms with the outcome that is to come. My PopPop is not here anymore, but do not get confused, for he is alive. I did not have warning. I did not have time to cherish him. I did not have time to say goodbye. My PopPop was on no medication, which was almost uncanny for a 75-year-old. Trying to encompass everything he was boils down to a few things that may not seem like much to someone who didn’t know him. He went on a walk every night after dinner, and would whistle the same tune when he was happy. He played the same little ditty on the piano every time we were all in the living room. He was a simple man who could not harm a fly, and a good man. Unlike the grandchild warned when they are going to lose a grandparent, I did not have this notice. I did not have time to go on one last walk with him, and I did not have time to record him on the piano. I did not have time to replicate his whistling song, or to spend time with the man I knew. My PopPop was the heathiest man I knew, but then he got depression. First slowly, then all at once. The man I knew had slipped from my fingers without any chance to hold on tighter.

In Chaim Potok’s book, The Chosen, blindness is a recurring theme. Although there are some instances of physical blindness, such as Billy in the hospital, most of the situations in this book are of the figurative sense. In these circumstances, the person has good physical vision, however, due to their previous experiences, they are not able to see the true situation.

Planet of the Blind is brilliantly written by Stephen Kuusisto; he delves into his life story and gives readers exceptionally realistic descriptions of his experiences. Beginning the memoir, it is clear that Kuusisto is undergoing an obvious struggle between himself and his blindness. Born with retinopathy of prematurity, Kuusisto’s parents do their best to avoid his impairment. Due to this, Kuusisto describes himself as developing a sixth sense of giving off the perception that he could see significantly better than what he actually could. Throughout the memoir, Kuusisto chronologically tells of significant events during his childhood, teenage years, and adulthood and how he came to accept his disability and be confident in himself. During the course of these significant events, Kuusisto uses poetry to convey his emotions while also using the rhetoric of emancipation.

“But I can see. I can see everything. I can see things that Mom and Dad can’t. Or won’t “. (page 4) In the novel Tangerine by Edward Bloor, Paul Fisher is an insecure, visually impaired boy with a low self esteem, who is stuck in the shadows of his older brother Erik’s “ football dream “, and can see beyond sight in ways that others can’t and into reality in search for his identity. Even though Paul starts off as a visually impaired boy with low self esteem and cruel nicknames, he learns that only he decides how people can treat him, and the true story of what actually happened to his eyes.

Growing up we all had expectations of who we should be imposed upon us by our parents. Whether or not we achieved those expectations upon reaching adulthood isn't really the final outcome. There is a greater lesson learned regardless of how we benefited from the imposition. And that realization is what truly shapes our final character. Raymond Carver entertains this topic in his poem, "Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-second Year." In this poem Carver provides us with a beautifully touching slice of life that is not only flawless in writing and technique, but that connects and emotionally evokes feelings that are universal in all

I made my way to my aunt’s house. Her home smelled of fresh cut pine, and she offered me a cup of coffee with a cinnamon stick in it. I accepted, and we went to the kitchen table and discussed our week. As she talked, I looked out her kitchen table. A small oak grew in the front yard. Snow capped the birdfeeder beside her bird bath.

Holly Hank’s daughter found out her dad and grandfather were legends. Holly didn’t know some of her family were legends (Larkin, 2002). Hank’s death was a tragic but it was going to happen

The husband in Raymond Carvers “Cathedral” wasn’t enthusiastic about his wife’s old friend, whom was a blind man coming over to spend the night with them. His wife had kept in touch with the blind man since she worked for him in Seattle years ago. He didn’t know the blind man; he only heard tapes and stories about him. The man being blind bothered him, “My idea of blindness came from the movies. In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing-eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to. (Carver 137)” The husband doesn’t suspect his ideas of blind people to be anything else. The husband is already judging what the blind man will be like without even getting to actually

In his memoir, Planet of the Blind, Stephen Kuusisto details his experience of living with a disability of sight, including his initial denial of his legally blind status. His tiring work at passing and his parents’ own denial and support of his refusal to be openly blind both stem from and reflect views of society at large. Members of Kuusisto’s life, just like many people today, ignore blindness and the challenges those with visual impairments have and continue to face. It’s not until he’s struggled for years pretending to see that he fully accepts his legal blindness and begins using a cane and a guide dog.

However, one character in my life was never ordinary; in fact, he was the exact definition of extraordinary. My “papaw” became my favorite playmate, my other half, and my best friend. We were commonly referred to as "two peas in a pod" and " each other's pride and joy." I loved my grandpa in the deepest, most sincere way a young child could. As I grew older, my grandpa assumed the role of my confidant and supporter. When my grandmother would scold me or when my sister and I would argue, I knew that I could retreat into the loving arms of my grandfather. The only thing that he ever did to upset me was when he said, "When I go, I'll miss everyone, but I'll miss you the most, Bug." Little did I know, I would soon long to hear these

In “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver which shows a narrators insight and reflection of himself by gaining better perspective and knowledge of Robert. At first the narrator's attitude towards Robert coming to visit his wife exhibits a lot of close-mindedness. He purely judges the fact that Robert is blind and how his only idea of blindness comes from “movies” (Carver 105). The narrator initially is fearful of meeting a blind man due to his experience of never meeting one. Before meeting Robert, the narrator and his wife get in a argument. The narrator goes on to say “I don’t have any blind friends”, which causes the wife to lash back to say “You don’t have any friends” (Carver

“One of the saddest things in life, is the things one remembers” (Agatha Christie). In Joyce Carol Oates’s novel, We Were the Mulvaneys, the speaker, Judd Mulvaney, reflects on his childhood and realized that death will claim his family members as it will claim him in old age. The qualities of nature and the instant heartbeat of the past helped characterized Judd that death will come no matter how hard you try to protect the ones you care about. Throughout the passage, the setting takes place in an earlier time indicated by the use of past tense verbs.

Stories told by a grandfather or an great aunt give a family its character, but no matter how much information you learn, there is always more; there are more adventures and more tragedy and more lessons. Hearing the stories of a relative’s experiences as a child, at high school, or how they raised their first child brings a family one step closer to that person and their family’s history. It is important to talk to family members and to record the stories of older relatives before they die and their stories die with them. The stories of the Coss-McDaniel family range from the humor of my dad being born in a bathtub to the tragedy of my Grandma Coss becoming paralyzed when my mother was only twelve.

The story “Cathedral” demonstrates that lack of sight does not necessarily prevent one from perceiving things as they are, or live their life to the fullest. In the story, a middle-age blind man, who is a friend to the narrator’s wife, and used to be her boss at one point, visits the narrator and his wife. The narrator has never interacted with blind people before, and all he knew about blind people was what he had seen on television. Blind people are stereotypically portrayed on television as slow moving, dull people, who never laugh. Based on this perception, the narrator was reluctant to meet the blind man and doubted whether they were going to connect. This is evident when the narrator states, “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Carver 1).

However, in this instance the reader see’s the grandfather making progress when he buries all the “things [he] wasn’t able to tell him. Letters” (322.) This displays him attempting to let go of the past. With that being said he is much elder and lived almost all of his life grieving Anna’s death. The author continues to show what grief over death can cause a person to do.