In “Notes on My Mother” by Hilton Als, he describes his mother’s slow death and the lack of connection he had with his mother. The whole family had a lack of connection and love present in the family because of the mother’s remarrying. This led to Al and his father never be able to have a father and son bond. Al’s mother was so focused on the relationship between her and her past husbands that ruined the ability to connect with Al and her siblings. “I was so lonely knowing her; she was so busy dying”. This stood out to me because when Al wrote, “she was so busy dying” he could’ve meant that she was so busy getting rid of their relationship or that their relationship was dying. He could’ve also meant that she was literally dying. This both makes sense because of the way she lacked effort in connecting Al to his father who is her second husband.  Later in the article, he writes how she was literally dying and she seemed fine with it. “…She was polite and that she was dying”. She was so focused on her illness and her significant others that it prevented her from being a mother and loving her children. He also includes that she looked down on him because he was gay, using the term “Negress”, and this damaged Al a lot, hurting his nonexistent relationship with his mom even more.