Meaning-making following loss among bereaved spouses during the COVID-19 pandemic (the CO-LIVE study)

Abstract

This study investigates how individuals construe, understand, and make sense of experiences during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seventeen semi-structured interviews were conducted with bereaved spouses focusing on meaning attribution to the death of their partner. The interviewees were lacking adequate information, personalized care, and physical or emotional proximity; these challenges complicated their experience of a meaningful death of their partner. Concomitantly, many interviewees appreciated the exchange of experiences with others and any last moments together with their partner. Bereaved spouses actively sought valuable moments, during and after bereavement, that contributed to the perceived meaning.