Loss

A response to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Death is something that has occured in my life, leaving many challenges, yet new opportunities. Yet, even with the sadness, I learned that something good will always come out of something bad. Life goes on, sadness will not stay, and love will last forever.

It swallows you whole, leaving nothing but sorrow, deception, and hate. You’re in a hole, unable to get out, crawling, scraping, clinging to life by a thread. Clinging to that thread, knowing that they, your loved one, your own father, had his thread snap above him while he was desperately grabbing the air. The loss of our own kin is experienced by many as we grow wiser and stronger, closing the gap between innocence and experienced.

As Francie is physically growing older, so is her mind and experiences. Parents try so hard to protect there children from the Truth, that when it is experienced, it hits you harder than you can imagine. That one final night of innocent sleep before the Truth of Johnny is revealed, her last before those memories and thoughts are there forever,creates a sorrow unlike any other. A memory as black as the mourning clothes, draped upon her shoulders, a shield from the world’s evil, and a sign of what the world’s evil has done for her, become her indelible memories of that faithful night.

People who have never experienced the weight of a death, do not understand the feeling of life. The need, the pull, to live is taken away, it is grabbed from them, leaving them cold, alone. The feeling of loss with turns to a feeling of betrayal, never learning how to deal with this quagmire. Francie comes to learn the need of family, that they are there for you when you need them, always there. Without the love and support of her family, Francie would never be able to contain the weight of this loss.