STORY MAP(Literary Element)

TITLE: Goodbyes and Grief in Real TimeBy Brian Stelter

Published: July 31, 2013

SETTING: Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a Chicago-area hospital

CHARACTERS:Scott Simon- the one who’s tweeting and posting lot of things about his mother.Patricia Lyons Simon Newman- 84 years old, mother of Scott Simon.Burt Herman- co-founder of Storify, an Internet company that markets what it calls social storytelling books.Joe Lambert- founder of the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, Calif.ICU nurses and doctors- According to Scott Simon, they are remarkable people who are getting people through pain and anxieties.

PROBLEM:A universal story involving heartbreak and humor into 21 words. Scott Simon lost his own mother after being treated for cancer.

EVENT 1: Tweets, those 140 characters, have given us beauty, tender moments, laughter and an intimate view of an amazing lady who Mr. Simon was fond to boast was his Mother. Scott Simon is not the first person to tweet about the death of a loved one but he might be the first person to live tweet an ICU experience, death and the pain of grieving in a continuous flow.EVENT 2: Mr. Simon gave us such a candid view of what life’s like for those whose family members who are staying with them in ICU. Clearly ICU is designed solely for patients; his tweets gave us a very clear picture

SOPHIA MARIE D. VERDEFLOR GRADE 9-1 STEP

EVENT 3: Mr. Simon wrote on Monday morning that “her passing might come any moment” this was really a heartbreaking part which actually says that in an hour, or not for a day, her mother will die. The nurse said hearing is the last sense to go so Mr. Simon sing and gives a joke.EVENT 4: Ms. Newman cries help me at 2:30 and been holding her like a baby since, and she’s asleep now, all that Mr. Simon can do is hold on to her. After he wrote that heartbreaking part, that evening it did, her mother died after being treated for cancer.EVENT 5: After his mother death, he said that he wanted people to know that he wasn’t holding her mother in his arms and tweeting with his free hand. And he also added that “As you may know, an incurable illness like this is a lot like war. There are moments of panic and anxiety, separated by hours of tedium.”EVENT 6: Mr. Simon cried during the interview on Wednesday while he was expressing thanks for the “love and support prayers” from people.EVENT 7: The outpouring of support and admiration for Mr. Simon has been tremendous. These tributes have been shared in a variety of ways but the universal theme expressed over and over is

SOLUTION: As a solution for this problem, Mr. Simon’s tweets about his Mother in her final days also helped so many people to understand that meaningful communication could be achieved with only 140 characters. This serves as a lovely tribute to her loving mother. It may not be the best time to say this, but honestly, I have often found Scott Simon's sentimentality to be cloying over the years I've listened. Not every time, and I still have basically liked him, because I can tell he's a very decent and kind person. In this instance his expression is not what I would call sentimental. It is courageous, wise, an example to learn from, and perfectly appropriate. Aside from tweeting and posting about her mother’s final days here in the world, he also showed his love for his mother through visiting her mother in the hospital and being with her mother all day.

MORAL: “There has never been, nor will there ever be, anything quite so special as the love between a mother and a son.” Definitely! Absolutely yes! So, the article ‘Goodbyes and Grief in Real Time’ gives us the moral lesson, as long as your mother is still alive and even your father, you should spend every second, every minute, every hour, and every day with your parents very well.

SOPHIA MARIE D. VERDEFLOR GRADE 9-1 STEP