TOW #11- Mothering My Dying Friend

Catherine Newman is the author of her memoir Waiting For Birdy and posts weekly to her blog Bringing Up Ben & Birdy. She is most popular on parenting websites, most of her posts being recollections of her parenthood. In her short story memoir, "Mothering My Dying Friend", she finds a relationship between her experience as a parent and her experience taking care of her friend of 44 years who was dying from cancer. Newman makes it clear to the reader that the beginning and end of our lives are nearly identical. Several times throughout the piece, Newman mentions children or infants. For example, she says "After I had my newborn, I was stunned by the basic fact of birth," (para 17). This, and many other statements like that, keeps bringing attention to the idea of children right after Newman discusses her interactions with her dying friend. This placement allows the reader to create a connection between the two stages of life, infancy and death. The author also sets the mood through her tone and word choice, using words such as 'excruciatingly', 'banal', and more. This creates a much darker, sadder atmosphere. This way, the reader can understand the pain that she and her friend went through while experiencing her inevitable fate. I believe that Newman did a great job with this piece, pouring all of her emotions into it. However, she knows to limit some of the pathos that is put in so that she can relate to the reader. Overall, she puts a more realistic perspective on death, the thing that we consider so out of our reach.