Carrie Hunter Martin

It’s common for parents and their children to be unconnected on topics that occur throughout each generation, but the topic of death is a topic that both parties are able to understand the mentally exhausting and emotionally pain experienced when a loved one passes. I.K. Rigel’s poem “On the Death of a Child” tells the story of the grief and journey of parents acceptance of the departure of their beloved child’s death. Similarly, the narrative “If You Could Only See..”, tells the story of struggle a eighteen-year-old girl, Carrie Hunter-Martin, faces overcoming the recent death of her parents. Although from different perspectives, both stories seem to focus on the accidents impact to the main characters, the parents and Carrie, and the fleeting
time that passes through their lives, like their lives seem to vanish. But even more so, “On the Death of a Child” and “If You Could Only See..” are capable of capturing the concept that death doesn’t divide the love shared between the characters and that time is the medicine to the pain of the heart crumbling. Death is a mental struggle. The parents in “On the Death of a Child”, try to cope with the “Image of ruin”(18), the fatality of their child. Torn and confused of how to move forward, the parents keeps asking for her child “Where are you going… Oh, Where are you going”. The author I.K. rigel communicates hollowness in the repetitive questions and the fear they feel. They struggle with the fear of accepting the new terms of their life, “Don’t go, don’t go, my fair-haired child /Stay here” (9-10), like if accepting their passing is almost as if forgetting about them and breaking the love. It’s not till the twenty-first line that the tone shifts and the audience feels the parent’s acceptance of the departure, “Where did you go, my precious child?” (21) in understandment that their love “never will part” (23). It’s communicated that time won’t weaken love, “Love cannot be killed; love binds” (19) but make it stronger, until they join again “until/ The time of great reunion” (19-20) wherever the passing end up. Similarly, in “If You Could Only See..” Carrie Hunter-Martin goes through different daily struggles while blocking out the pain of her parents recent death.
The author illustrates Carrie as the dead, “Eyes fogged and drowsy, she resembled the live version of the walking dead” (page 1), making her seem lifeless and empty, even though it’s not until the third page “I can’t bring them back” (3), that the audience gets the concept that they’ve passed. The detailing of the death isn’t revealed but from Carrie’s morning routine, the pause she takes to think about her parents while in a time crunch “she hurried herself towards her dresser, t-shirt hanging onto her chest by one sleeve, she grabbed her mother’s Jewelry box.. She smiled wide when remembering her most cherished childhood image: her parents with soft gazes looking toward each other” (3), is a visual image of the sadness and longing she holds for them. The author even shows that Carrie has to snap out of timeless trance, “Flashing lights reflected into [her] peripheral vision…” (3), so she can be on time for the real world, and she’s forced to push aside her parents. The death of her parents didn’t cease the amount of admiration and adoration she held for them, even the robbery of her apartment and her mother’s stuff didn’t ruin their love; the narrative makes a succinct inference through the book laying on Carrie’s dresser “her hands picked up a book entitled ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude?’ “ (4) that she could go a
hundred years alone but still hold love. Like the time of pain is over and that their understanding of shared love is what’s filling the heart.