Page 1105 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

Essay 3: Support System
Louise Mallard has family and a friend to support her when her

husband supposedly dies in a train accident. Some people can rely on

family and friends in times of need, while other people have to rely on

themselves. Still others choose to rely on themselves and not ask for

help. What about you? To whom do you turn when times are hard?

Memorial Tattoos: Getting Inked and

Letting Go

Kate Sweeney

Kate Sweeney is a writer and radio producer. This
essay was taken from her book, American

Afterlife: Encounters in the Customs of Mourning,

published by University of Georgia Press.

1100L/4477 words

The churchyard scene in the photograph is sepia and sprawling. Its 1

blocky crosses and headstones, hemmed in by grasses grown long,

look like they belong to a land somewhere between old New England