Essay on Half-mown lawn

At some point, the rhythm of our lives all comes down to habits. Work and household becomes routines, and most importantly the people surrounding us become an integrated part of our lives. It all comes to a point where we are so used to having someone around, because he or she has always been there and we assume that he or she always will be there. When they suddenly not are there, it seems close to impossible to move on and let go of your old routines. In Dan Powell’s short story Half-mown lawn, the reader is introduced to Annie who is struggling with the difficulties of letting go immediately after her husband has passed away unexpectedly. When she is suddenly faced with having to reorganize her daily schedule, a lot of complications keep popping up, trapping her in her mourning phase.
Annie is not in obvious denial. She knows her husband has passed, but the short story does however show examples of her having moments of temporary dementia, in the way she keeps forgetting her husband is gone, “Under the heading Fresh she writes whole chicken. The words hold her for a moment before she crosses them through with a single line and writes chicken breast in the space beneath” (pp. 61-62 ll. 20-2). She needs to remind herself that she no longer has to shop for him. But still, when going to the supermarket, she has a kind of relapse, once again forgetting his absence, “Annie searches for the items on her list, filling her trolley with washing-up liquid, onions, bread and those biscuits he liked.” (p. 62 ll. 19-21). She cannot wrap her mind around the fact that he is gone. This is seen in the way she keeps looking for her husband between the aisles in the supermarket, as if he is hiding somewhere, as if he’ll pop out at any given moment and make everything go back to normal, “Her eyes flick up at the signs hanging from the false ceiling of the