Wallace's stories, poems, and essays appear in publications around the country. In this essay, Wallace considers the way in which Cristofer's characters represent different stages in the grieving process, and the progress each character makes toward acceptance of death during the course of the play.

Death, it has been said, is the one sure thing in every life. But individuals deal with the possibility, and the reality, of death in myriad ways. Some welcome it as an escape from a painful world. Some fear it so deeply they have trouble living life. Some court death, dancing to the edge of mortality, then leaping back. Some, with an eye on the grave, live life with great abandon, against the day when they will cross the mysterious border into the unknown afterlife. Some, with an eye on the afterlife, live life with great care, in hopes of receiving reward...