First, Sasha LaPointe meditates on the “language of trauma” in the Saturday Essay. An abusive experience from her childhood manifests itself in strange images of floating boats, images that she struggles to express in writing. LaPointe delves into the psychology of dissociation and discovers a wellspring of strength coming from her Native heritage and its oral histories.
Then, in the Sunday Essay, Theresa Corigliano tells the heartbreaking story of her mother’s mental and physical decline. The burden of care-taking falls upon Corigliano’s father, Joe, who finally relents and allows the psychiatric unit to admit her. The disease is at its worst when Corigliano’s mother fails to recognize her dauther, but there are moments of lucidity when Corigliano sees “real sadness in her eyes.”
