HW 53 - Independent Research A

1.)The aspect about care of the dead i would like to focus on for this research is about burial ceremonies and how for different people they are different.  The burial is the main part of care of the dead for me because when i think about taking care of someone who has died i think about a funeral and a proper burial ceremony for that individual.  Different religions have different views on what a proper burial ceremony should be.

The first article that i found was on the death and burial process of Osama bin Ladin.  Bin Ladin was buried at sea which apparently was the traditional way of an islamic burial.  I am confused as to why even though he committed such horrible crimes against america we still had the respect to give him a proper burial.  In my opinion if you were to do such horrible things then your burial ceremony should not be a respected one by any means.  The article talks about how the burial in some ways was even looked at as offensive to muslims and they believed he should have been given a normal land burial.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/world/asia/03burial.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=burial%20&st=cse

The second article that i found was about the death of three children whose mother drove them into the water and killed them all.  The most interesting thing to me about this article was that the mother was buried next to her three children.  In a situation like that i am not sure as to why they would bury the women that killed her children next to them.  Although she is still their mother she obviously did not care about her children so why would people care if she was buried next to them?  If she was asked to be buried next to her children when she died and then this happened if i was her husband or anyone of her family members i would not honor her wishes because of this horrible act of indecency.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/world/asia/03burial.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=burial%20&st=cse


2.) The person that i interviewed was an ambulance worker at the nursing home in my neighborhood the village nursing home.  I interviewed her about what it was like to have to deal with taking dying people to the hospital and sometimes having to see them die.  Although she does not deal with the burial process or not even usually the death process she says that all the stuff that she sees is just as bad as seeing them dead.  She has to deal with seeing old men and women suffer each and everyday and the thought that there is only so much she can do kills her.  Something very interesting to me that she said was that when she's driving someone to the hospital from the nursing home she feels like she's giving them the last ride of their lives and thats the last thing they will remember before they die, scary she says but unfortunately true.

HW 51 - Second Third of COTD Book

PRECIS: 

The second half of the book focuses on funerals in a home rather then an arranged place.  There are many specific laws about having a funeral in a home.  These laws talk about you having all of the necessary documentation of that persons death.  If you do not have this information such as the death certificate and i'm assuming proof of your relationship to the person you are not allowed to let this happen.  The reason is that a case like that could be mistaken for murder and or hiding a dead body in your home.  The home funeral is also a lot less expensive since you aren't renting out a space to hold the funeral or purchasing all of the perks that the space offers for a funeral.

Quotes:

"The end is certainly sad, but my feeling was also that Mary was freed at last from the body that had been weighing her down and causing her pain for so long"(Page 118).

"Unload that sucker (coffin) and get out because you're not welcome"(Page 132)

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The middle part of the book for me was actually where it started to get interesting.  More facts about funerals and their costs started to come into play and the stories that were told became very insightful and emotional to read.  When you hear about someone dying who was originally not happy with who they were as a person it is sad in many different ways.  It's sad in the way that they couldn't be comfortable with who they were and it's sad in the way that no one should ever be so disturbed with who they were that dying for them was some what reliving and others around them even knew that about them.

HW 49 - Comments on Best of Your Break HW

Larche,

Your interviewees ideas on cremation vs. burials interested me alot. I liked how that person believed that cremation was "wrong". Since that is an opinion i am not going to argue against their beliefs but it did make me think about my own ideas on the issue. Very good post overall. 
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Max,

Your interviews showed how death can impact people's lives by losing someone close to them. You also touched on how after someone dies they are still remembered by those closest to them. That even though they are gone, they still live on in the memories of others.
(from larche)




Rossi,

It is very interesting to me that your "acquaintance" felt like death was not something that should be discussed. Did you know this before you interviewed him? If not how did this in the end help you shape your blog post if it did at all. Overall a very thought provoking post.


Jay,

That was very interesting to learn about your moms experience growing up in ireland. Did her experiences with death over there affect you in anyway when you heard about it? I find it very interesting that she wanted to be cremated for the reason of not wanting to go in the ground. Great post.

HW 48 - Family Perspectives on the Care of the Dead(comment on this)

The topic of death has always been something i am not so familiar with.  I have only dealt with the death of about three people who have been very close to me.  The two deaths that had the biggest impacts on me were the deaths of my friend Jake Mcdonough and my fathers best friend Sherman Darby.  The first interview i conducted was with my friend jakes best friend who would like to remain anonymous.  The second interview that I conducted was with my father about the death of his best friend.  The questions that i tried to ask them were questions like, how did that persons death impact your life?  Where there any things that you didn't know about that person but you later found out after their death?  Do you still think about that person and how much?

When i interviewed the anonymous person about jakes death he seemed a bit uncomfortable about it at first but as the interview went on he seemed to ease into the situation a little more.  When i asked him if he thought about jake on a daily basis he replied, "of course i do.  Jake was my best friend, i saw him every single day.  It is very hard to go from seeing someone every day to never seeing them again.  When i do think about him though i try not to think about his death so much as i think about all the great moments that happened in his life."  This to me showed that it was very hard for him to deal with the death of such a great friend.  When i asked him about the impact it had on his life he said, "It impacted me way more then i expected.  When I found out about his death i kind of just.. shut down.  He died around the time i was taking final exams and i was so upset that i couldn't even get myself to study for the most important test of my school year.  Jake was the greatest friend i could have and without him i just wasn't myself.

The interview with my Father was similar but much more emotional since Sherman was my godfather and like a second father to me.  When i asked my dad if he still thought about Sherman he replied, "It's hard not to think about the person who you roomed with for almost 10 years.  It's hard not to think about someone who was arguably the best friend anyone could ever ask for.  Sherman would put me before himself no matter what the situation was.  I loved Sherman and i always will as long as i'm still breathing."  After this you could see the utter sadness in my fathers face and how emotional of a topic this was for him to speak on.  I then asked him if he felt uncomfortable talking about his death.  He said, "It's not that i feel uncomfortable, i feel irritated.  There are people out there committing crimes and doing horrible things and they live to be very old.  Sherman did nothing to harm anyone as long as he was alive and couldn't even make it past his late 60's.  It just isn't fair." After this i stopped the interview because i noticed that it was very hard for him to talk about.  Death is a very hard topic to talk about especially when it comes to the people closest to you.

HW 46 - Initial Thoughts on the Care of the Dead

I do not really know a lot about death because I did not know many people who have passed away.  The only experience I have personally with death was the death of my aunt a few years ago.  When this happened I was scared and felt terrible about the incident but i was not exactly sad.  This was because I was not very close to that aunt because i never really got to see her all that much.  She died from cancer and it was a pretty quick process, or at least it seemed like it to me.  The reason that I think I did feel somewhat bad is because my parents were sad about it.  I was raised to be emotional when people died and pay respect but it was weird that i didn't seem to know how to show my emotions of that in this case.

The way that my parents really talked to me about how I should treat the dead has always just been about respect.  It is very frowned upon in society to treat the dead with disrespect even if you and the person had not gotten along while they were alive.  My parents told me to never say, "i wish they were dead" because that is one of the worst things to tell someone.  To hate someone to the point where you want them to be dead is very extreme.  When death does happen it is always very sad and takes a while to process. A year ago from april 14th my friend Jake McDonough was killed by a car while riding his bike in brooklyn, he was only 18.  When you lose someone at such a young age especially someone i would see on a regular basis it is a very hard thing to deal with no matter how close you were with that person.

HW 45 - Reply to Other Peoples' Comments

Harry,

i also belived that the pay rate was a very big part of why they choose the profession. The chart that i found really helped me form that whole paragraph.

HW 44 - Comments on Other People's Projects

Rossi,


I thought it was very interesting how you decided to do a project where you actually talked to a nurse in a hospital about the real aspects of birth.  Your most interesting lines where when you talked about how the third persons childhood desire was to become a doctor/nurse.  All in all this was a very good post and i am sorry i did not get to hear your speech.


Jay,

I really enjoyed reading your interview. I especially liked how the women you interviewed was not seen as the traditional standards of someone in her line of work. Your most insightful line was, t's terrible. I think it's just a convience to doctors and patients (mothers). If you dont want to have a baby on a Saturday, you just have a C-Section. That was interesting because it showed her true opinion on the matter.



Alex,

In your post i noticed that your main focus was to show people all of the bad things that happen in a hospital.  Pretty much trying to get people to"see the light" in a way.  Your post was very well thought out and i would like to talk to you more about it so i can know more about your opinions on this matter.