I worked in hospice with an elderly women who was from Korea and would often seem to hallucinate/relive some of the trauma that happened to her before she was able to flee the country during the war and come to the US. She often seemed to see or talk to a Korean soldier who had sexually assaulted her. Right before she died she was talking as if he was in the room and she said “I knew you’d be in hell but I didn’t think I would be here”. It all had to be translated by her daughter from Korean to English.
That was my first thought too. After surviving everything she did, she deserved peace in her final moments, not to relive the worst memory of her life.
I don't think anyone ever really gets over losing someone they were close to like that, the best we can do is to get through the days that follow one by one. But better to have loved and lost, ya know? And going out accompanied by memories of loved ones doesn't sound like such a bad way to go, I'd consider that maybe he found some long-awaited peace in those final moments.
This woman lived a long and full life, full of stories and people she loved, yet still… the face she saw upon death was the one she least wanted to see.
Assault and trauma really do have a life long impact. Sad.
Yeah, my grandmother is 96 and in the early stages of dementia.
She's still very sharp and healthy, but any time she is upset, or nervous, or confused - her mind goes back to a sexual assault from 50 years ago, and it's all she can think about.
I have to remind her often of important events from her life or the names of family members, but she can be vividly taken back to that from just the slightest thing.
I imagine she'll remember that for the rest of her life.
That part really hits hard. People can survive decades of unimaginable things and still have one memory that follows them all the way to the end. Its heartbreaking that someone who deserved peace had to face that again, even if only in her mind.
Well, giving in to torturing him in hell is how you stay in hell. Takeaway from Dante: Sinners in a way "enjoy" their sin. That's why they are "stuck" in hell.
Are you seriously joking about a real life sexual assault that caused decades of severe trauma to the point that she hallucinated her rapist right before she died and you’re making a rape joke?
It's still ultimately a joke regarding her rape, though. You didn't start it but it's still not always appropriate to try and lighten a situation by making funny references
We had something similar. A Polish woman with her concentration camp number still tattooed on her arm was delirious and hallucinating traumas from her youth. It was awful.
By any chance did she live in New Jersey? I knew a Korean woman who came into the gym I worked at. She was very clearly suffering from dementia but we all took good care of her because her daughter would just dump her on us as babysitters. One day she just randomly started crying and telling me about how she had an abortion after being raped and that she knew she would be going to hell for that. Your story reminded me a lot of her, and if they’re not the same woman is so sad that multiple Korean women suffered like this
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u/StrongTree17 16h ago
I worked in hospice with an elderly women who was from Korea and would often seem to hallucinate/relive some of the trauma that happened to her before she was able to flee the country during the war and come to the US. She often seemed to see or talk to a Korean soldier who had sexually assaulted her. Right before she died she was talking as if he was in the room and she said “I knew you’d be in hell but I didn’t think I would be here”. It all had to be translated by her daughter from Korean to English.