"Dear Grandma, I hope you are getting better. There was a man in a car wreck who died three feet tall. Here is the man. Then there is a horizontal stick figure with X's for eyes next to a bubble-shaped car with what looks like a Band-Aid on it. I guess that was my studied approximation of death at the time."(49) It's strange how a young child can't fully comprehend death, but uses there own unique message to try an let everyone they to know what's going on.
The author, Karr, goes into such vivid detail describing what it was like to see her Grandma battling through Cancer. "It was then that I found out that the snake smell wasn't just from her bedpan or some old food getting nasty somewhere in the room. It came from her. In fact, it came from her open mouth, from deep inside her where the cancer was doubtless eating out whatever was human."(78)
As one reads on from page 23-97, they can't help but think of a traumatic time period of their own life. The first memory that came to mind after reading this passage, was when I was in 5th grade and my dog was dying from old age. My parents raised my dog Shiba and I as if we were twins from the same egg, so this was especially harder on me knowing that I was soon to be out living my "sister." Like the author Mary Karr just sitting and watching her Grandma counting down the days, I too was counting down the moments I had left together with my dog Shiba. I, along with my family was stuck in a awful situation, it was either continue to watch Shiba struggle, or pull the plug. Though hard to do, I was given my final morning with Shiba, only to realize when I came home from school I would never see her again.
Though this is not a family event, this experience just recently happened to me and I feel it's worth telling. Over break, around Christmas time, my good friend Molly, invited me over for a holiday five dollar gift exchange party. Unfortunately I didn't read the invite until ten minutes before the party, so I had to scavenge around my house for a gift worth giving. The best thing I could find was a homemade jar of jam (flavor unkown), so my friend agreed to get me a candle in case I wanted to have a "better" gift. I turned down his offer saying that I wanted to give away a unique gift that stood out. Once the party got under way and everyone was settled into the living room, it was time for the "White Elephant" gift exchange. The gift I ended up receiving was a cheap rotating picture frame, so I didn't feel to bad about my jam present. Finally, when it came time, a fairly plump woman drew my package and was thrilled thinking she got a candle, however I had to explain to her that it was only homemade jam and it was at that time that the entire party became silent and laughed at me for bringing such a cheap present. I didn't really get to offended, however I will always be known as the person who brought that cheap jar of jam to a holiday gift exchange.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteOther than some grammatical errors, I enjoyed how related the memoir to your life. I'm not sure that Mary was "counting down the days" with her grandmother was the same emotional relationship that you had with her dog, but it was good that you related The Liar's Club to your experiences.
I very much liked the anecdote involving the jam and was wondering what flavor was the jam? Very humorous and was thoroughly enjoyed by the reader.
~Rebecca
I believe the central image is the homemade jar of jam; once the women found out that it wasn't a candle, it seemed to lose the woman's interest even though it was the only thing you had. I would also prefer the flavor of the jam to be strawberry, but I've never had cherry jam....
ReplyDeleteJam is a delicious present. Raisins would be even better.
ReplyDelete