Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Impact of losing a family member essays
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Impact of losing a family member essays
It is no longer the home I grew up in. The loss of my mother is evident now more than ever, cementing the realization of how one person’s impact can be as much the foundation of a home as the concrete itself. It has been two years since our lives changed forever. My dad is recently remarried and trying to move forward after losing his wife of almost thirty-eight years to terminal brain cancer. Since my mother’s death and my father’s subsequent remarriage, our family house has lost its comfortable feel of home; in its place now resides a reflective sadness, an impersonal emptiness, and a surreal urgency.
The living and dining rooms are now tidy and impersonal. Gone is the familiar clutter of children’s books and teaching aides. The half-finished crosswords and other reading material are no longer in their stacks next her chair in the living room. The chair isn’t even there anymore. It had traveled with Mom to hospice care after a stroke left her unable to walk.
Another major difference is the remodeling activity. Since my parent’s purchased this house when I was four, they had remodeling plans. Somewhere along the way, everyday life and complacency had always gotten in the way. Lately, almost as if in defiance of the past, my father’s current “do it now, there may not be a later” attitude had taken over. He is currently working on the upstairs master bedroom. My parents had always wanted to make one large master bedroom out of two adjacent bedrooms upstairs, but it always seemed to take a back seat to more urgent fixes or budgetary needs. The two extra bedrooms upstairs now stood as one, finally coming closer towards their fruition. The smell of fresh paint brings a sad nostalgia running through me. Why isn’...
... middle of paper ...
...as my family, my childhood…my mother.
As time passes, I know that I will have to accept that what once was will never be again. Maybe things would be easier if my dad and his second wife moved to a different house, but that is not my decision to make. Change is part of life and while sometimes it is wonderful, other times it is a painful journey in which we feel alone, even abandoned. My home, the place I grew up in, was not so much the walls themselves, but the person who created the security that I felt through an unconditional love. That is what a home is; home is a nonjudgmental, irreplaceable love that can still see your best even when you are at your worst. Those of us who have had that kind of home should feel fortunate. I didn’t realize how fortunate I truly was until I stood within its absence. I know I do now, in more ways than ever before.
In their lifetimes, many people experience the loss of loved ones and the departure of children. One of the most difficult things to do is to keep strong and good relations with friends and family members, before it is too late. The short story “David Comes Home”, by Ernest Buckler, follows Joseph, who worries his son David never had the same connection to the land as he does, though memories of past experiences, finding old belongings, and discovering the boy’s true feelings, resolve this conflict.
Living in an apartment building it’s like you have to share with other people and you can’t keep any noise because the people next to you or downstairs can hear you. Also you can’t have a barbeque or a party because there is no space to have it. When you live in an apartment building this view is high because you are sitting on the balcony of the 10th floor. Living in a house the view is nice and it’s right there because you can just step outside whenever you want. You can decorate it and if your house is big enough you can have a get together or a party. When u step outside or look out your window you see all these beautiful houses and the pretty flowers that my mom planted. It’s kind of hard to explain the feeling when I stepped into this house; it was like stepping into a mansion. I was so happy and I enjoyed the house because it was such a perfect place to be for when it got warmer. My mom and I would just sit outside our porch whenever we felt like it and we would just sit and have a nice conversation, sometimes I would read a book or listen to music outside instead of being in the house all day. Living out here is a comfortable place to live and to be in because we feel like we didn’t have
We have lived with other families in their homes and as an effect, we have had to store our belongings in a storage. In 2010, we were unable to pay the monthly bill for the storage and our storage unit was sold in an auction; we lost all of our belongings. It had felt as if my parents and I had just immigrated to the United States – we had nothing to call ours. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I saw this misfortune as a motivation to set long-term goals and I pledged to my parents that I would be college graduate to eschew living under the same circumstances during my
Upon renovating the quaint little house on the hill with my mom, my own feelings toward the house changed dramatically. Before the project took off, I hesitated to step foot inside the building. The odor and dim lighting made it difficult to envision a successful result, but once we finished I was tempted to move in myself. This is the goal. Taking on this second project, I’d do my best to make the house one I’d love to live in while not allowing myself to implement my personal style preferences. The result is a home both move-in ready and open for visitors.
As a child, Lisa was able to witness the true and pure love of her parents. Her mother was diagnosed with cancer and decided that it would be best if she said goodbye to her family before it got worse because she didn’t want her children to see her waste away. She remembers how her father went through hoops to get permits and permission to build a sandbox that was visible from her m...
As I walked through the door of the funeral home, the floral arrangements blurred into a sea of vivid colors. Wiping away my tears, I headed over to the collage of photographs of my grandfather. His smile seemed to transcend the image on the pictures, and for a moment, I could almost hear his laughter and see his eyes dancing as they tended to do when he told one of his famous jokes. My eyes scanned the old photographs, searching for myself amidst the images. They came to rest on a photo of Grandpa holding me in his lap when I was probably no more than four years old. The flowers surrounding me once again blended into an array of hues as I let my mind wander……
“Coming Home Again,” written by Chang-Rae Lee, illustrates the relationship of family, particularly a mother who has stomach cancer and a son who is increasingly distancing himself. This profound short story demonstrates the significance of the connection between a mother and a son. Additionally, it establishes and concludes with the negative consequences of their disconnection—regret.
I slowly opened the front door -- the same old creak echoed its way throughout the old house, announcing my arrival just seconds before I called out, "Grandma!" She appeared around the corner with the normal spring in her steps. Her small but round 5'1" frame scurried up to greet me with a big hug and an exclamation of, "Oh, how good to see you." It was her eighty-fifth birthday today, an amazing feat to me, just part of everyday life to her. The familiar mix of Estee Lauder and old lotion wafted in my direction as she pulled away to "admire how much I've grown." I stopped growing eight years ago, but really, it wasn't worth pointing this fact out. The house, too, smelled the same as it's ever smelled, I imagine, even when my father and his brothers grew up here more than forty years ago -- musty smoke and apple pie blended with the aroma of chocolate chip cookies. The former was my grandfather's contribution, whose habit took him away from us nearly five years ago; the latter, of course, comes from the delectable delights from my grandmother's kitchen. Everything was just as it should be.
I remember reading one book about home, the author use a few examples to show what his ideal home was. The author used one multimillionaire as an example, one day the multimillionaire was found by a policeman near his house drunk. The police offer to drive him home, he replied: “Home? I don’t have a home.” When the policeman asks him about his house he said “That’s not my home, that’s just where I live.” According to the author most of multimillionaire’s family has died he lived along all by himself. The author also used another example of a man whose family got drafted apart by a civil war, after 20 years he finally found his daughter, the man instant burst with tears and said, “I’ve finally got a home again.” I believe that home means more than just a place for shelter and for family storage any more. A lot of people are still happy when they are living in cardboard boxes because they are living with the ones who they love and love them back. Without the love the house could not be comfortable at all. Statistics show that the leading cause of suicide among youth and teens are family violence. They often can’t find comfort in both home and school, and can’t find hopes in life.
For many years I would pass by the house and long to stop and look at it. One day I realized that the house was just that, a house. While it served as a physical reminder of my childhood, the actual memories and experiences I had growing up there were what mattered, and they would stay with me forever.
Robert Frost’s poem “Home Burial” allows readers to consider the devastation that parents experience when they lose a child. “Home Burial” captures the differences in the ways people deal with loss and grief. Munaza Hanif, Anila Jamil, and Rabia Mahmood also analyze this fascinating poem in their paper, “AN ANALYSIS OF HOME BURIAL (1914) BY FROST IN PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE” for its representation of people and their grief. Hanif, Jamil, and Mahmood’s analysis of Amy’s psychological breakdown displays how she and her husband’s lack of communication leads to the death of the marriage.
More than anything, it is a home that is one’s most blissful belonging. It is cherished, irreplaceable, and irrefutable, but without it one will never be complete. A home will always and forever define a person as who they are. Throughout a lifetime, individuals make a lot of decisions; take plenty courses of actions, for one reason: the pursuit of happiness. Whoever has a home knows that they do not have to pursue happiness, they have attained it. One might have many houses throughout lifetime but they will only have one home, where there are people that they share sentimental values with.
It was a traumatic and unexpected loss that shook my family. The loss of my husband stopped me in my tracks, and it felt like I was from another planet learning to survive in an entirely new world. Of course I am still affected and triggered by my grief, but the journey has been bittersweet and transformational, to say the least. However, the time of transition I am basing this paper on is how my new relationship has affected my family and the ways in which we are making the transition from loss to renewal and what they once viewed and knew me as, to the person I am today. To understand the impact of the loss one would have to know that my late husband and I had known one another since sixth grade, married out of high school and for ten years prior to his death. We “grew up together” for some of our relationship and he became part of our family of origin, as did his nuclear family. Our relationship and his families with ours changed my family’s identity, as we joined the characteristics of two different families (Bennet, Wolin & McAvity, 1988). My late husband’s death disrupted the continuity of our family identity, and roles shifted to maintain a balance in the period of
As I look back on my childhood a great number of memories hide in my mind; sleepovers with friends, hanging upside down on the monkey bars, eating ice cream are but a few. The one memory that doesn't hide is of the postcard perfect house that I love and adore. From the hearty cattails and rose brown apple trees to the grilled cheese, this place reminds me of my childhood fun but also the love that my whole family shared. The red brick house and its surroundings will keep my memories forever.
The air is really fresh, and the wind is comfortable. Grandma usually opened the window during the daytime; I still remembered that feeling when the sunshine came in house and scatter. I walking among those numerous grand trees and admire colored leaves on the trees and on the ground. I miss that feeling of calmness and stability of the world around. I wish I could return the reality of those feelings once more. Memories in mind and never forget about happiness of staying in my grandmother’s house. Grandparent’s time-honored gift to their grandchildren is their unconditional love, unfettered by schedules, routines or commitments. They reinforced their grandchildren’s sense of security and self-value.