Yesterday, Joannie Rochette skated her short program at the Olympics after her mother died of a heart attack two days before. Could you have?

I don't think it is for us to decide what she should or should not have done. She made her choice and I'm sure she did what she thought was best for her at the time, and I would have respected her decision either way. I believe that if I were her age, I might have been able to go through with the performance.

I dealt with deaths in the family and a lot of other difficult stuff at that age, and still held it together to be able to handle everything I needed to do at the time. Sometimes people are able to shove aside their emotions and sort of run on autopilot to keep going through those first few horrible days after a death. Rochette's been skating since she was just a tiny little thing, and she's a real pro.My guess is that she felt quite driven to keep going in honor of her mom and her country, but whatever her reasons, she handled herself beautifully.

I was moved to tears when she finished, bless her heart. joannierochette.com/biography.htm joannierochette.ca/en/biography We sure never know when life will hand us a situation that turns out to be the best and worst time all rolled into one.

I personally would not of had been able to perform so soon after such a loss. I always marvel at athletes and other professionals that can rise up under such adversity. I know for most of them they are not doing it to satisfy their own ego, rather it is perhaps the most heart felt homage they can make to their dearly departed loved one.

I could never do that. I suppose my emotions would get the best of me, but I salute Joannie Rochette and all those others than can.

I think her mother would have wanted her to perform. This is what they had all been working for all this time. Usually when there is a child in an Olympic training program there are a lot of early morning late nights with the training.

I would imagine that her mother was there for her with all that and would have wanted her to see it through. What a terrible time to have to skate and she did it beautifully. Grief is a strange thing and it can affect us at different stages.

The loss I felt when my mother died was worse after she was shipped home, until then it did not feel real. For the first few days I was just unbelieving. This may be how she feels.

I definitely could not have done that. I'm not good enough at ice skating. As for what she should have done, I would think her family would have wanted her to perform, if she was still capable of doing so.

She definitely should perform, if she felt she was able to perform well.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.