In the first section of Moskowitz’s essay she explains that negative feelings are sent to her by reading the letter her mom had written her when she was in California receiving treatment for her disease. In the same section she explains that as a teenager she remembers seeing constant reminders about how ill her mom was but chose to ignore it and worry about her own physical appearance as she was sixteen and worrying about something else might set her off edge. She dared not explore her mother’s disease. She explains that she was afraid to explore her mother’s disease, as was the rest of her family. Their way of coping was to deal with death the only way they could which was by denying that it was happening in their own home.
