HW 28 - Comments 2

comments I wrote.
To Natalie: WOW! There are many things I liked about the telling of your experience. But the beauty stands out the most to me. My favorite quote was "As much as I hate to admit it, I found myself being happy that I was separated from the ill and dying..." It made me imagine how our daily lives would change if all the patients in nursing homes lived with the larger majority of society. I have a feeling there would be less compassion for the elderly because they would constantly be "in the way". your writing made me think about how the system of sending the elderly to a home may not be morally correct but on of the alternatives wouldn't be widely accepted either.


To Sharif-Hey Sharif- This was interesting to read. I enjoyed how you made connections to Tuesdays With Morrie. And how you also stated things you noticed to be different about Nadia's behaviors, which automatically allowed you to believe that Nadia is dying. Your line "She seemed contempt, not that she had accepted the fact but more like it wasn't serious enough to worry about." made me think about how important it is to accept death even if you don't think you are near dying. i wonder what would happen if children were raised(reaffirmed everyday) with the idea that they could die due to billions of different sinarios, in one day alone. I would have enjoyed your post a little more if you had incorporated all of that information but explained the setting and environment in such away that i felt like i was with you experiencing the conversation with Nadia too.
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comments peers wrote.
My dad said - Amanda clearly identifies Roberta's helplessness as she slowly looses her ability to function in the world as an octegenerian. Without her friends to help her she would have little or no quality of life; fresh food and a trip to the library may only come once or twice a month. With limited family resources of our own we still find a way to improve Roberta's life by weekly visits for shopping, house cleaning, and companionship. As we get older we may become less aware of other peoples needs and Roberta is completely unaware of the sacrifices that Amanda and Theo have made so their father can help her keep her life together. It is sad to see someone at the end of their life so dependent on others to survive. Roberta has told me many times how much she really appreciates our visits. Yet, this apology doesn't compensate Theo and Amanda for the time lost from being with their dad. In life there are many tradeoffs and I am hoping both Amanda and Theo will be able to appreciate that the gift we give to Roberta of our caring and time is worth the loss of family time we might have spent doing other things.


Felipe said- Amanda, I felt as if your most interesting line (to me) was, “...I was feeling much resentment towards Roberta. She was once a functioning person who could take care of herself in society, but now she relies on other people to take care of her, when she would be able to if she weren’t so disoriented or unfocused.” Because this focuses on illness and the feelings you may experience during it. Much like other things in our life, when we have feel as if we are left out or of loneliness, we direct our anger towards the most accessible thing which in this case is Roberta. I feel as if she is the easiest target because of her illness and weakness to put this anger on. My opinion itself also proves how other peoples sickness affect the way we look at them and think of them.


Abdullah said- Amanda, I think you exhibited a lot of good thoughts in this post. The fact that you and your family even went to visit a friend of your grandmother is shocking to me. I don't think I even know one of my grandparents' friends. I really liked your description of her house because I felt that it added a sense of hesitancy that you had to leave as soon as possible. Like Andy said, what your grandmother told you about being jealous of you and your brother was quite unique. Since my grandmother if she ever felt that way, would never be that honest with me. I also liked how you ended your blog saying that you would probably not treat her differently even if you saw her again because it shows how we as a society often tend to keep our first impression as the last impression. I also felt that you were treating Roberta as an illness rather than a person. I don't mean this in a bad way. Since I think I know you pretty well personally, I'm just saying you're a open person that doesn't really keep their feelings towards someone bottled up, and I like that.


My brother said-my brother said- I don't feel exactly the same about the experience, but I like how my sister describes how Roberta had a difficulty with normal, everyday, easy tasks. In the line "...she was conscious of her footing as if crossing a large river." This helped me think about how much more difficult it was for Roberta then it was for us to get into the car.