after life

the ordinariness of the moment is an aspect of the event that she will never forget

according to the author, the word "ordinary" (lines 13-18) can be left out of her recollections because

writing about it

based on the passage as a whole, the author indicates that she copes with her husband's death by

implies that a personal tragedy exists on the same scale as a national one

by associating her husband's death with the bombing of pearl harbor and the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the author

emphasize the hazy nature of her recollection of the days immediately following her husband's death

in lines 8-9, the author's deliberate overuse of conjunctions in the phrase "a day or two or three after the fact" primarily serves to

exploration of the nature of change and how to deal with that change

taken as a whole, the passage can best be regarded as a(n)

contemplative and reflective

the author's tone in lines 13-30 can best be described

states that she, the only witness to the event, is not the "ideal teller of the story"

a central irony of the passage is that the author

the stark abruptness and suddenness of change

the short sentences in lines 1-4 ("life changes fast... question of self-pity") highlight

the thin line between life an death

the author states "in the midst... graveside" (line 31) in order to suggest

tacit emotion and expressible emotion

the author's rhetorical stance is characterized by a dynamic tension between her

clinical and detached

the author's tone in lines 57-60 can best be described as being

is attempting to lessen the pain of remembrance by using ambiguous language

the author's use of the words "it" (line 5) and "fact" (line 9) reveal that the author

illustration and exemplification

the second full paragraph in lines 13-30 (beginning with "at some point...") is primarily characterized by what structural pattern?

that after a loved one dies, your previous life ends, and a new one comes after

in context, the title "after life" implies