Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Death
Linda Wertheimer and Robert Siegel extensively interviewed Helen Payne, an 81-year-old woman dying of leukemia, and family members, regarding the process of coping with terminal illness in a loved one. They included observations from Payne's oncologist and hospice nurse as well. Their interview shows a wide range of logical and emotional responses exhibited by family members as Payne's illness progressed, and demonstrated just how complex our reaction to such illness can be.
Wertheimer and Siegel are presumably competent radio reporters. Their article was organized around open-ended questions they put to Helen Payne, one of her granddaughters, and medical experts. The result is a compelling narrative reflecting how families handle the complex emotions that occur when a loved one faces death. Family members demonstrated both logical and emotional responses to Payne's situation, although Payne herself accepted the doctor's diagnosis with poise and dignity. Since this article was not research, including medical experts balanced personal opinion with scientific fact. It would...
By use of their open-ended questions, they allowed the respondents to give full and detailed responses that give the reader a sense of who these people were. It was easy to understand the magnitude of this family's loss when Helen Payne eventually did die. Information was provided about the family in the authors' narratives, but they refrained from interpreting the Payne family's experience, which was appropriate for this type of interview.
In the interview, the interviewers elicited frank discussions from family members about how they responded. For instance, Glenda Crabbe, Payne's granddaughter, responded in both logical and illogical ways. While Payne herself accepted the fact that she was going to die even though she could not remember the name of…
That anecdote in particular was moving to me because my grandmother did something similar when she was dying. I spent hours sitting by her bedside. One time she drifted off to sleep. When she awoke, she told me that she was ready to die. She had dreamed of heaven, and in the dream, when she got there, was told of her beloved cousin who had died many years before. She was told this cousin was anxiously waiting to see her again. This belief that death would rejoin her with loved ones gave her great comfort.
In doing more formal research on this topic, it would be interesting to see if it is typical for those in say, the eightieth or ninetieth decades of life to accept the prospect of impending death more easily than their family members can.
Wertheimer, Linda, and Siegel, Robert. "All Things Considered." National Public Radio, 1997.
Significantly, the authors promote an accepting and acknowledging attitude towards the negative aspects of aging, as well as an understanding that it does not have to be a solely negative experience. It provides practical principles for the ability to successfully cope with the negative processes by means of a positive focus and attitude. What I like most about the book is its positive consideration of what it could mean to
The last days of the dying person should be spent in the most peaceful manner possible. Dying in one's home is also preferred in our culture because it gives the dying person a sense of warmth and familial bond. Reflecting on this, I believe that dying in one's home is also a sign that the eventual death of a family member has already been accepted by the family. It gives
" (Willmott 2000) in other words, the reality of death is removed to the edges of culture and society; which means that the significance and reality of death is in effect 'anesthetized' by institutions such as the medicine and science. As Giddens states, death is avoided or excluded from common social life and from "…fundamental existential issues which raise central moral dilemmas for human beings." (Giddens 156) This suggests that the
Coping With Depression Depression could be, well, a depressing subject matter to deal with, over the course of an entire 158-page text. However, by emphasizing positive coping strategies that can be adopted by sufferers of depression and the friends and loved ones of those going through a depressed period in their lives, Coping with Depression by Sharon Carter and Lawrence Clayton. (Hazeldon, 1995), manages to avoid this potential stylistic pitfall. In
Death and Dying Death is a pretty extreme event in someone's life; one that everyone must endure. We all know it is coming one day, but most of us take it for granted as we go about our daily lives. However, once in a while a person will be a part of another's death and get to experience the process from a close perspective. I have a personal experience regarding death
Death and Dying There is no right or wrong way to react to someone's death or to someone who is dying. Grief is as individual as anything can be. Some cry uncontrollably and even have to be sedated. Others become silent and uncommunicative. A person's culture will invariably impact the way they grieve because it will socially dictate behaviors that are appropriate or inappropriate to a given set of conditions. There