Summary

The wife of a man dying of cancer takes him to Yosemite for one last visit before his death. During this trip she thinks about how her life has been changed, both by marriage and by her husband's illness. Yosemite represented a tradition for them where they vacationed with their children each year. As the narrator reflects on how her life will change after her husband's death, and on the needs she has suppressed over the years, Yosemite begins to represent a new kind of tradition for her which will give her nurturance in the future.

Commentary

Useful for teaching how illness affects the family, and for how family members deal with death and dying.

Primary Source

If I Had My Life to Live Over I Would Pick More Daisies

Publisher

Papier-Mache

Place Published

Watsonville, Calif.

Edition

1992

Editor

Sandra Haldeman Martz

Page Count

10