Several years ago, when I was a brand new nurse’s aide, I had an experience with a dying patient that changed my perspective completely. I was scheduled to be a 1:1 companion with her for a 12 hour shift. The lady had received the news the day before that she most likely not live more than another week or two. And she was very much at peace with this, when talking to throughout my shift I inquired how she could be so calm and collected. She told me that death was just the next step.…
I have chosen Cancer as my favorite constellation because it is the sign I was born under. Latin for "crab", it is the dimmest of all the zodiac constellations and used to be the Sun's most northerly position in the sky. It is located in between Gemini (to its west) and Leo(to its east). It is best known among stargazers as home of Praesepe, an open cluster. Cancer is most well known in Greek mythology as the crab sent by the goddess Hera to help the hydra kill Heracles.…
Once again we get to our infusion getaway at 8:30 am for the last of a two-part chemo. You have to psych yourself preparing for another day of this. Like you psych yourself to eat liver as a kid. Or psych yourself for a psycho as president. Well it turns out her white blood count was too low and we had to postpone until next week.…
Dad story-While they were trying to stay warm with their janitor running their furnace. My dad had to save the power lines from freezing. No, one knew there was a storm that day on, November around the 15th, of 1996. He was trying to fix the power lines, rain was coming down and when it touches an object or living object it starts to freeze that object. It went on for around 6 hours or another hour.…
Alex Barraclough Mr.Pfarrer English 101, per 9 22 September 2015 On Friday October 4th 2013 I arrived home from school, my agenda consisted of watching netflix and playing video games, I didn't expect my mother to come to me and say ”Your father committed suicide” I paused in perplexity. At that moment I began to question myself. How can this have happened? How could my my own blood have done such a thing?…
In the event that I could not save my father, it was my responsibility to have the paramedics at my house, and unfortunately this happened often. I was shown the delicacy of life in the most dramatic of ways. Although I was only ten years old when I took responsibility for my father, my age was not an indication of my maturity. I was not a child anymore, but instead a…
When my mom got cancer I was positive it was a life changer. It started out with treatments. My mom had to go to the cancer center every day. Chemo made my mom really sick and it made her face really swollen, I had a lot of pity for my mom. When I went with my mom to her treatments it made me cry.…
Growing up with my mom was beyond great my mom always made sure I had everything I needed. I was always dressed in name brand clothes and my hair was always done in the cutest styles. She made sure I went to the best schools. She did everything a good mom was supposed to do. Then I got to the ages of 12,13 and 14 that's when things took a turn for the worst.…
No more cancer is fantastic news! I was thinking about you and your journey. You are such a strong inspirational woman! I had no idea that Leslie had a stroke. I knew something serious happened, but I didn't want to just outright ask and make her feel uncomfortable and then as time went by I forgot about it.…
I’ve slept on a hard cold ground before. I had one blanket placed on top of me to keep me warm. My siblings who were all hugging tightly with one another were also keeping me warm. This was our new home in a new country and we felt unwelcomed. We had no furniture, food, or a functioning restroom.…
Statistics are mathematical equations. They are numbers. They mean little to me. Statistically, there is a 000000001% chance that you are the person that will read this essay. And yet, here you are.…
Cancer, that word rang through my mind like a song that had been set on repeat. We found out the news a few days after Christmas that my grandfather had stage four pancreatic cancer and had a limited amount of time left. He seemed perfectly fine prior to the news when he went in for a checkup with his doctor. My grandfather had previous health issues most involving his heart, but cancer was the one thing my family never expected. The night I found out my grandfather had stage four cancer is a night I will never forget, and it changed my life but not for the better.…
The morning of Saturday November 1st, 2014, I woke up to three hundred text messages and twitter notifications all notifying me that my friend, Dominik Pettey, was killed in a car crash by a drunk driver the previous night. No pain had ever felt so significant, it was crippling, but then instead of pain, I was numbed by the inability to grasp that my friend someone who I just had seen the night before, was gone. I ran the words “Dom is dead” through my head on a loop but could not bring myself to accept it. That week, although I was still here, facing such a tragedy, everything on earth seemed so insignificant, going to class, homework, midterms, everything. I woke up every morning wishing it was just in a bad dream and that noise would never cease because that is when it hit me the most, silence, when I didn't hear Dom’s infectious laugh or when he wasn't telling me that, “I am Kiera Wainer and deserve the best God can give”, which he used to say anytime I was upset, the first time he said those words was the second worst day of my entire life, it was the day my dad left for his new family.…
Everyone has a past that tells their own stories. Whether they are good or bad, people still wish they could change one thing to make their personal histories better. For me, losing my father at a young age caused my past of growing up as a child extremely difficult. Although, the actions of my past guided me to a delightful and an appreciative life I have now. Yet, I still wonder what my life would be like if I could go back and change one thing.…
My Fathers illness has equally effected all of my siblings and I significantly. It is most difficult hearing stories from my family members about my father before he became ill and depressed. He was often considered the center of each conversation. It is difficult to type these words about my father considering that the last time my father and I have shared a laugh is beyond my memory. My mom always tells me that I am very similar to my father in terms of his stubbornness and positivity.…