“We walk back to the first body, unmingling stories. They
divide up the bodies. They take the clothes off. What I thought before seeing
it all: never again will I know the body as I do now. And how, exactly, is that?” -“Autopsy Report,” Purpura
Purpura’s essay explores the process of conducting an autopsy,
and she begins with snippet introductions/ physical descriptions of different
people. As the story continues, Purpura focuses on the details of these
individuals while describing how the body is processed at the scene, the thoroughness
of the notes of a medical examiner, and the thoughts that fly between the
investigators and the ME. While reading this essay, it reminded me of the
stories I have heard while at the hospital and doctor office’s waiting rooms.
Everyone seems to have a story to tell, and human nature” forces” us to yearn
for someone to just listen. Just like in a grocery store checkout line, the middle-aged
lady in front of you starts out making pleasant conversation, and the next thing
you know, you are being told about her teenage escapades of last night. However,
I find stories relating bodily injury to be more interesting and often funnier.
You can’t help but wonder why he was jumping of the second story of his house
into an above-ground pool with a trampoline sitting in it.
Prompt: Describe a person you’ve
met or seen in the hospital waiting room or a doctor’s office. What were they
there for and what was their story? Did they injure themselves in a go-cart
accident or split their head open on a set of bunkbeds?
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