In this weeks reading Maryanne finds out about the Afghan Library. Soon after she is continuing to get sick “…that not even several courses of antibiotics could tame”(170). Maryanne goes into great detail telling Schwalbe how to answer condolence notes. What Schwalbe mentions is that “…Mom had forgotten to tell me and then [I] remembered-how to answer the condolence notes we would be receiving after her death”(171). Maryanne continues to be in and out of the hospital. When she gets home, Schwalbe and Maryanne choose their next book: one of Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection of short stories. “…Lahiri had moved as a child with her parents to the United States. Lahiri’s immigrant characters often have experienced the same kinds of dislocation that Mom had seen in her refugee friends; many of them grapple with balancing two cultures, trying to preserve the known while embracing the new” (172). Schwalbe states that, “The emphasis in both tales is on the survivors- a father and his daughter; a father and his son- and how their changed or changing circumstances bring to center stage their inability to communicate”(173). Schwalbe mentions that theres not a lot of speaking throughout the story but he comes to realize that “Lahiri’s characters, just like people all around us, are constantly telling each other important things, but not necessarily in words”(173). A few weeks later, Maryanne and Schwalbe choose to read Murder in the Cathedral. After they finished it Schwalbe asked Maryanne what made her want to read the book. She said to him, “I find the play very inspiring”(174-175). “He’s also able to accept death. He’s not happy about it but he's perfectly calm. When I stop all this treatment, it will be because its time to stop”(175). Schwalbe also brings up a very interesting thought in this part of the reading: “How does a doctor tell you that its over…if your aim is quality of life and not quantity of life, there simply are no good next treatments?” “What could be more human than want to live?” (175). In 2014 my Papa who I was very close to, took his own life. When I got to the hospital he was on life support. As a family we knew we could keep him on life support to have “more time” with him. But at that point there wasn't any quality to his life. The doctor told us there was nothing they could do to save him and that it was up to us to decide whether to keep him or let him go. Letting go of someone is never easy. Have you ever known someone who was close to you that you had to decide whether to choose quality or quantity? If so, did you look at how lucky you were to have them in your life, or did you focus on how much will be missing without them? and Why?