About Death

5. Think about a time when you had to say good-bye to someone who was important to you. What did you say, write, or do? In these poems, Donne claims that there are limits to the power of loss and death. As you read the poems, think about how you deal with loss in your own life.

This question reminds me of my dearest great-grandma. She has been passed away for almost seven years. By recalling the wonderful times that I spent with her and thinking about her sudden death, I wonder what we can do when someone we deeply love pass away. She was a little old woman in her late 80s, soft and affable. It seemed that she was too old to do anything, but in fact, she still paid great attention to personal appearance and hygiene. Every morning, after getting up and making her bed, she would dress up herself carefully from head to foot, in order to be looked clean, tidy and pleasant. She was a very kind-hearted woman and always ready to help others. Maybe it was because of her starveling childhood that she was very frugal and often told us that we could not waste anything. Whenever others gave her some delicious food or some fancy things, she would absolutely put them away in the closet and took them out to us when we were home from school. At night, under the moon, she would like telling us some old stories passed down from generations to generations. There is so much to talk about those touching memories! If possible, I would love to live with her forever. However, we human beings, as other animals and plants in nature, are all to die and vanish for good. I clearly remember that it was a Saturday nightfall of the summer, 2006. The clock on the wall had just stroked seven. I was in great grandma’s bedroom, feeding her. She had become seriously ill and I had never thought that would have been her last meal. After a few while, she refused to eat anything and said that she would like to go to the toilet. Then my grandma and I held her carefully in arms and