Gender Roles of Dying

Working at Hospice Atlanta has been an amazing experience so far! Not only am I getting to learn about the elements required to run a non-profit organization, but I am also being exposed to an area of life that I have not had much experience with in the past.
Sitting at the front desk today, signing 600 letters with two signatures that were not my own, I was thinking about the things I had seen at Hospice during the past three weeks. As a sociologist wannabe, I cannot help but try to connect people's behavior to the bigger picture and the structure of our society at large. The thing that has really stuck out to me is something that many sociologists seem to be obsessed with-the way in which men and women approach various situations (in this case, the issue of death). Interestingly, my experience with Hospice as of now has shown that the coping methods of men and women with regard to death are very similar. The family members involved are either extremely reserved and silent or they are overactive and demanding, regardless of gender. Also interesting is that there seems to be no correlation in the gender of the caretakers of the patients in the center. Both sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, mothers and fathers are involved in seeing that the sick loved one is well taken care of. To me, it seems that death is a topic and experience that causes people to forget the expectations and norms of society-perhaps because death is so abnormal (in that it is often unfamiliar and not a part of a person's everyday life). This is just an observation of a mere three weeks. My opinion may change-we will see....

On a completely unrelated topic, I have really enjoyed the book Fire in a Canebrake. It is set in Walton and Oconee counties. I grew up in Newton County, which makes up part of Walton's southern border-so this story hits close to home (so to speak). It was odd to me reading the names of families and churches that sound familiar and to learn that they may be connected to this historical horror. I think that I actually feel relieved that attention is still being paid to the lynching of Moores Ford, and I love the work that Andrew Sheldon and his colleagues have been working on in the last few years. Many people will argue that the past should remain in the past, but I find something wrong with that idea. It seems that often people tend to believe that the passage of time makes things disappear and that somehow, with time, wrong becomes less wrong and less important. By reopening cases from the Civil Rights era, these lawyers are voicing the opinion that a crime is a crime whether the criminal is caught 2 hours or 50 years afterward. I would agree; to ignore these murders is worse than forgetting them.

Okay, now that I have sufficiently shared these random thoughts, I want to say that I am really enjoying living in this house with my wonderful housemates and hope that Tier 2 is doing well!

-Richelle