Narrating final memories from spousal loss: The role of place and quality of death

Narrating final memories from spousal loss: The role of place and quality of death
American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine; by Emily L Mroz, Susan Bluck; 8/24
Personal memories of the death of a spouse can guide bereavement adjustment. Place of death and quality of death are end-of-life factors that are likely to influence death experiences and formation of subsequent personal memories. The current study employs narrative content-analysis to examine how place and quality of death relate to affective sequences present in older adults' final memories from the death of their spouse. ... Final memories are carried with the bereaved long after their loss. Positive final memories appear to stem from witnessing a comfortable, medically appropriate death outside of a hospital setting. End-of-life 'that is' between care and aligned with patients' values for place and treatment may be critical for spouses' formation of constructive final memories and bereavement adjustment.
Editor's Note: Per Yale press release: Emily Mroz, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the Yale Department of Internal Medicine’s Section of Geriatrics, recently received the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) Edie Stark-Shirley Scott Early Achievement Award. The honor is presented annually to a woman in the initial years of a career in thanatology—the study of death, dying, and bereavement—who has distinguished herself through activity in scholarship, service, research, clinical practice, or social action.