This is a really personal topic for me but I feel I could benefit from some unbiased advice....I'm having a really, really hard time writing the explanation statement... I took a year off after graduation to gain experience and so I was supposed to apply last cycle, for admission to the class of 2019. But during the summer of 2014 my father passed away and my mother came close to dying as well, spending over a month in the hospital (for reasons not related to my fathers death ) needless to say, I found myself unable to finished the application in time. The problem is, I cant seem to write a coherent version of the events without going into a dark hole. The death of my father was particularly hard because he died of a chronic but curable disease. He chose not to follow conventional treatments and I spent the last 10 days of his life by his side, fighting the urge to do something but choosing instead to be brave and respect his choice. There are no words to describe how hard it was, and there are those even in my own family that blamed me for not forcing him to undertake treatment. My father was a doctor btw, he understood perfectly what he was doing. But it is all too personal, I don't want to go into detail but at the same time saying he just passed away does not feel right. At this point I decided to not even write about it, but the only thing that concerns is what would happen if it comes up at interviews? like if they ask about my family or why I didn't apply last cycle and I just break into tears mid interview... Im usually a very strong person but the topic of my father crushes me in seconds.
what should I do? this is the only thing holding me back from sending my application. Sorry for the long post