‘They’re Going to Die at Some Point, but We’re all Going to Die’ – A Qualitative Exploration of Bereavement in Later Life

Abstract

This article reports on a qualitative study to investigate what bereavement means to older people. Drawing upon 80 in-depth interviews collected from eight British and Australian retirement communities, our study revealed that facing bereavement while ageing includes experiences of losing both others and the wholeness of the self. Core themes identified how the experience of losing others can be compounded by ageing-related challenges, undermining older people’s defence from bereavement and frustrating their fundamental meaning and being. The older people’s dynamic responses were also captured, highlighting the importance of supporting their agency to deal with the deeper pain of loss. By extending the concept of bereavement in later life, we also called for a more grief literate culture to mitigate the multifaceted and often deeper distresses of bereavement that older people may face alongside ageing.

“They want you to know who they really are inside of the old visage”—biographical storytelling as a methodological tool to explore emotional challenges in old age

“…Instead, we understood loneliness more broadly as a condition deeply imbued with older people's emotional lives in which their feelings and moods are intersubjectively shaped by changes both in individual experiences and socio-cultural dynamics over the course of their lifetime [30]. As such, this broadly defined loneliness, as demonstrated in our other work [3,5], has afforded us an insightful perspective to explore how varied emotional challenges can be prompted, shaped and supported by older people's biographical artifacts and how loneliness can encapsulate emotional challenges within their ongoing construction of narrative identity [25]. The insightfulness of loneliness as a concept encompassing emotional challenges in old age is also highlighted by the cross-cultural comparison, in which we found emotional challenges are risks facing older people despite their social situations (although we are not suggesting there are no differences between the UK and Australia, given the objective of this methodological article, we seek to explore the value of biographical storytelling in a wider context).…”

“…Narratively speaking, many of these emotional challenges may not solely result from ageing but also have historical roots in older people's biography. For example, loneliness may be experienced as being separated from the world that older people had long takenfor-granted [3], while frustration may be connected to painful realisation of no longer being who they used to be [5]. As such, emotional challenges in old age may arise from ruptures that disrupt the ongoing construction of self-narratives as a coherent entity across the lifespan.…”

“…The example we draw upon here is a large qualitative study entitled "the Bath Loneliness Project". The project was conduct between 2019-2021, to use loneliness as a lens to explore the emotional challenges facing older people living in the UK and Australia (for further details about the project findings, please check [3,5]). These two countries were chosen as both have seen significant socio-demographic shifts in recent years, with increasing numbers of older adults living longer and healthier lives.…”

“…On the other hand, older people may also embrace unique risk of confronting negative emotional experiences such as loneliness, sadness and anxiety [3]. Research has suggested that changes and challenges alongside ageing (e.g., bodily deterioration, loss of others and approaching mortality) can threaten to undermine older people's emotional stability to retain resilience in their ongoing lives [4,5]. These emotional challenges may further disrupt older people's wellbeing by which they have long ensured the continuity and coherence of their identity as a meaningful entity [6,7].…”