section 1 part 1

The speaker shares their personal experience of their brother's death when they were six years old. They struggled to fully comprehend the situation and felt confused and alone. The speaker's parents also became disinterested in them and their own lives. This left the speaker feeling independent but without anyone to help them understand and cope with their emotions. As I said at the beginning of the podcast, I was six years old when my brother died. This was the first kind of trauma I had ever experienced. At six years old, it was really hard for me to fully understand what had happened and what was happening in the aftermath of the situation. This whole situation was very confusing and difficult, especially with me being a child. As I wrote in my memoir, after my brother died, my parents not only became disinterested with me, but also with their lives as a whole. This left me in a unique situation where I was entirely alone most of the time and I became very independent. At the same time, I didn't have anyone around me to help me process what was going on.