Grief and older people: the making or breaking of emotional bonds following partner loss in later life

The aim of this ethnographic study was to explore retrospectively the grief experiences of 12 older people whose partners had recently died in hospita l, following a period of terminal illness. The rationale was based upon dev eloping an understanding of the grief experiences of newly bereaved older p eople. In doing so, it is important to consider that grief is not only shap ed by culture and social context but also by the nature of the relationship between the mourner and the deceased. For most of this century, the domina nt conceptualization relating to grief and the social experience of bereave ment has been based on the psychoanalytical school of thought. This process is said to involve the mourner passing through a number of stages or phase s and forms the basis of the 'grief work hypothesis'. Using in-depth ethnog raphic interviews, the mourner's reactions to and perceptions of the loss w ere explored. Tape-recorded interview data were analysed using the inductiv e process of both content analysis and discourse evaluation. The findings f rom this study shed light on an area of conjugal bereavement that has recei ved little attention in the past and challenges traditional models of grief . The indications are that in the first year of bereavement, the bereaved r etain and modify the emotional relationship with their deceased partners, t hrough a range of symbolic behaviours. The discussion raises issues concern ing the need to consider the extent to which contemporary conceptualization s of grief explain the reactions of older people whose grief experiences ar e shaped by their social situation. The study also highlights important iss ues concerning the need to understand the complexity of grief experiences a nd bereavement support for older people which has a number of implications for nurses in both hospital and community settings.