| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺北護理健康大學 === 生死與健康心理諮商研究所 === 106 === This paper is a narrative of a silent mentor’s daughter’s journey of self-discovery and experiences as she accompanied her mother in her illness from a village in Malaysia to her final resting place.
The study adopts a qualitative research method in exploring and analysing the author’s experiences through self-narration. The first chapter explains the objective of studying the silent mentor subject from a family member’s perspective and the struggles encountered during the research. The second chapter revisits past memories of the author and her father during his illness- the birth of the pain. Detailed in Chapter 3 is the experience of the author’s mother in fighting cancer and her decision to donate her body to the silent mentor program, a decision which added to the author’s pain. In the subsequent chapters, the focus is switched to the author’s own experiences: the pain she felt during her beloved parents’ illnesses, the severe bitterness she had in losing both parents one after the other, coping with the loss as a caregiver, as well as the complicated grief and realisation of her own role as a bereaved.
From the feeling of numbness after the parents’ deaths to the surfacing of anger which finally gave way to uncontrollable sorrow- the emotional rollercoaster experienced by the author in writing of this paper was a new discovery. It was a self-discovery process. She was surprised by her growth as she rode out her pain and resentment which eventually freed her and gave birth to a new sense of empowerment and self. She came to understand and appreciate the significance of the body donation procedures and rituals for family members of a silent mentor. As she delved deeper into the entire program she also reflected on her own experiences. Her journey of self-reflection and examination comes to a head in the final chapter. The self-realization
empowered her to move on to the next milestone in her journey of discovery armed with a better knowledge of self, of her family members and the silent mentor program.
Self-narrating this personal journey has helped the author to re-align the emotional roller-coaster she had been experiencing and showed her, through different perspectives, the inevitable processes in life. As she walked through the different states of grief and healing, the author is now able to embrace her devoted mission and soldier on.
|
|---|
