Pulls Like Gravity

This thesis is a collection of eight original, personal essays that radiate from my experiences serving as a caregiver for my father during the four years that he was dying. It is a chronicle of a period of time in which my world was focused intimately on the fact of my father's condition, a time during which my willing involvement with his protracted struggle with illness, repeated hospitalization, and finally, death, gave shape to my days and altered my understanding of my own navigation of the world. These essays are concerned necessarily with the body; they are the products of grief and memory, family, love, and other losses.