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Peg Bachelder
Gawande’s mother is a doctor who immigrated from India. She struggles to come to terms with Gawande’s father’s impending death, but she (along with Gawande) helps him assess his priorities in the final phase of his life and work with doctors and nurses to enable him to achieve those goals.
Gawande’s Mother Quotes in Being Mortal
The Being Mortal quotes below are all either spoken by Gawande’s Mother or refer to Gawande’s Mother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7 Quotes
I realized then that my father had already told us what to do, just as Susan Block’s father had. My dad was more afraid of becoming quadriplegic than of dying. I therefore asked Benzel which posed the greater risk of his becoming quadriplegic in the next couple months: stopping or proceeding? Stopping, he said. We told him to proceed.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Gawande’s Mother Character Timeline in Being Mortal
The timeline below shows where the character Gawande’s Mother appears in Being Mortal. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 7
Gawande’s father decides it is time for the surgery, and Gawande and his mother go with him to the Cleveland Clinic. Two hours into the surgery, his father goes...
(full context)
Gawande and his father and mother see a different oncologist, but she, too, proceeds in information mode, laying out eight or...
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...one of them, he notices that his father’s condition is growing much worse, and his mother can’t do much to help.
(full context)
Chapter 8
On Saturday, August 6, Gawande’s mother calls, explaining that his father isn’t waking up after taking a strong dose of pain...
(full context)
Gawande realizes that this is probably the end, but his mother and sister aren’t certain. Gawande and his sister both book flights to Ohio, and later...
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Epilogue
...the Ganges River, they are assured eternal salvation, and so Gawande, his sister, and his mother took a boat and spread his ashes in the middle of the river according to...
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...After Gawande finishes spreading his father’s ashes in the Ganges, Gawande, his sister, and his mother return to shore.
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