Tuesday, January 13, 2009

number 4

So I finished my book over Winter Break, and I decided it was pretty good. This blog post is going to be about how important Nielsen's family and friends were while she was coping with her breast cancer. They were important both on and off the ice. Off the ice, I think her most important supporter was her brother Scott. In an email to her he says, "I will always be on your side. You make us all proud" (252). Without words like this from people who love her, it would be a million times harder for Nielsen to survive, and stay optimistic. He mom was also crucial in providing comfort. Her mom givers her similar love and kindness that her brother does. One of her emails says, "I long to hug you. I wish you were here to be in the sunshine and go out to dinner with Daddy and me" (223). It is vital that Nielsen knows people like her mom and her brother love and miss her.

On the ice, support from her friends is just as important. Her best friend Big John is one of the people who enables her to not completely give up hope. He even emailed her family to tell them all about her, which shows how much he truly cares. "I just wanted to let you guys know that even though you guys are a world away from your beautiful sister, you gave her the best mental boost imaginable" (309). This shows both how much BIg John cares and how much her family helps her. Nielsen said herself, "I can't imagine being here facing my illness without someone who cares about me, who deeply cares" (310). This gives Nielsens view on the importance of her friend.

2 comments:

Callan B. said...

I think this just goes to show how much power people have one another, sometimes that is a bad thing but clearly here it is a very good thing. When one is coping with a serious situation, it is always very helpful to have someone there to talk to. Someone you can count on. With Nielsen's situation, it would be so easy for her to just give up, quit trying to survive. But her friends and her family were there, acting as crutches, reminding her that she could overcome and accomplish anything.

Hannah D said...

I think this just goes to show how much people need support and love from others. It reminds me of when soldiers in Iraq found an abandoned orphanage and though the kids were starving to death, they wanted to be touched and talked to more than food. It is amazing how much love can help. I know that if I was sick it would be really easy to give up hope if no one else believed in me. With people you love, you don't want to leave them so you continue fighting the disease so that you can stay with them. I also thinks this gets to how important a good mental attitude is to recovery. Nielsen's family gives her a mental boost and this good mental attitude seems to help her through recovery. This should just be a reminder that we should all keep our friends and family close.