| Summary: | The purpose of this research was to explore how women in midlife
experience and make meaning of the recent death of their mothers. A qualitative
phenomenological paradigm was chosen as a means of exploring and discovering,
in depth and in detail, midlife daughters' experiences as they viewed them from
within their own phenomenological worlds (Henwood, 1993).
Nine Caucasian women between the ages of 42 and 65 years participated in
individual, in-depth, audio taped, personal interviews. Each of these women had
experienced the death of her mother between 1 1/2 and 5 years prior to the
interview. The main question the women were asked to consider and describe was:
What was it like for you to experience your mother's death and what meaning does
her death have for you today? Co-researchers were invited to discuss their
experiences like a story with a beginning - a middle - and an end.
Colaizzi's (1978) seven-step model of phenomenological data analysis
served as a general guideline to identify the common themes shared by these
women who had recently experienced their mothers' death. Seven themes emerged
through the analysis. These themes pertained to these daughters' (1) profound
sense of loss, (2) need to make sense of their mothers' death, (3) need to reassess
their relationships with their mothers, (4) sense of regret concerning lost
opportunities, (5) sense of shifting roles and responsibilities, (6) need to reassess
meaning in their lives, and (7) sense of enduring connection to their mothers.
These themes are elaborated on in terms of their implications for future research and
counselling.
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