homework 51

so in the second third of the book, i was reading about her having a roommate when she first lived in Hollywood that she got really close to. her roommate had a little speech problem and her whole life she was trying to get it fixed and questioned as to why she had it. of course they do their own thing but kept in contact with each other. one day she gets a call from her all roommate and finds out that she is getting surgery because her heart's arteries are small on the top. two days after the surgery, she died.

this was very heartbreaking for her. she said that she couldnt be able to embalm her. "since i was so emotionally involved, i knew i couldnt embalm the body" (pg 40) this made me think about how morticians too have feelings and know people that will die one day.

this whole chunk of the section stuck out to me because later on, it says how after the funeral, they went back to the house for lunch. "afterwards, i declined the family's invitation to join them for lunch at the house. i needed to go home and embrace my own grief." (pg 41) when i first read this quote it automatically made me remind myself of the blog i posted before. it talked about how food is a big deal and is connected to deaths. people always have little gatherings after the body is buried at the family's house for lunch or some appetizers.

what i can get from reading this is that morticians have it harder when it comes to someone dying. since they have a lot more understanding to what happens to the body because they do it for a living, its hard to look at the person or even try to imagine to what is happening to the lifeless body. they have to continuously go into work and always be reminded what they do and their pain that they feel when someone they know dies. unlike regular jobs, when someone dies, we have a break or distraction that gets our minds off it.