"In the Cemetery..." just may be the most depressing thing I've ever read.

A short story by Amy Hempel, "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried" makes tears spring to my eyes every time I read it. Just thinking about it is making me want to cry. Now, the first time I read it, I was absolutely confused. I thought it was about a lesbian couple. Then I thought it was about a mother who's baby died in the hospital as a newborn. I thought it was a bunch of different stories thrown together. It really did not add up to me.

After discussing it more clearly in class, I was having trouble holding back tears sitting at my desk. No, it was not about a lesbian couple, or a mother and her baby. It was about a young woman who felt responsibility for her dying friend whom she loved dearly, and she couldn't come to terms with the fact that her friend was dying. I've never had a friend die, and I can't imagine. I don't want to bring myself to imagine. Five years ago my grandmother died, and while I still feel pretty profound grief at losing her, for as long as I can remember I'd known she had cancer. It was, very unfortunately, a matter of when, not if. Just like in the story. And maybe that's where some of the tears regarding the story come from. But I don't think that's all of it.

Like I said, I've never lost a friend. One passage in the story was especially striking to me, and it feels so random that this out of the whole work would garner a reaction out of me. It is a description of a nurse giving the friend an injection, making both the main character and the sick friend tired. They sleep, and the main character dreams of her friend as a decorator, styling her house and singing, proudly taking the narrator to the door and showing off her accomplishment. Since at first I'd thought the story was a bunch of short stories about different people, I thought from this paragraph to the end was the description of a mother in the hospital with her sick newborn. She dreams of her daughter grown up- healthy, and wanting her mother's approval. The love of a mother for her child is so profound, and although in the story the main character is not a mother, she feels great responsibility for her friend. She feels guilty to leave her alone, and though she doesn't want to, she knows that her friend is nearing death and can't come to accept it.