Book contents
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2009
Summary
Ginger describes her father as a gregarious man, a man full of life. She was always close to him and recalls a childhood filled with happiness and love. As an adult, Ginger remained closely involved with her parents and was especially likely to turn to her father for advice. When Ginger's father died of a heart attack eleven months before our interview, she felt emotionally undone. She missed him profoundly and was worried about her seventy-two-year-old mother, who was devastated by the loss of her husband. In the midst of grief, Ginger was in a car accident and broke her back. At the same time, she was struggling in a marriage that left her feeling emotionally isolated.
While the situation appeared bleak, Ginger was slowly undergoing a personal transformation that would turn her life around. This transformation was inspired by the death of her father, by the kind of person her father was, and by her past relationship with him. Ginger did a lot of thinking as she lay flat on her back in a hospital bed:
My father was always very enthusiastic. He did so much. He was always involved. He always felt that you can just sit around and watch other people have a good time or you can do it yourself…. It just reminded me that, “Hey, life goes on honey.” You can sit home and be miserable and get fat or you can do something. So I've lost thirty pounds since then. I really got control of my own life again. Control that I had given away for a while. My father's death was the catalyst that finally got me out of an unhealthy marriage.
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- Information
- Death of a ParentTransition to a New Adult Identity, pp. 1 - 4Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003