Remembering the life and dying days of a deceased close other: Memory recall and associations with loss context.

Abstract

Grievers recall memories from both the life of the deceased and the dying days, but differences in recall across these memory types are not well-characterized. In this study, 100 bereaved German adults described up to ten important memories of a deceased close other (M = 7.86). Memories from the dying days were classified into: final memories, health transition events, last time events, and temporal markers. Among those who provided at least one dying days memory (73%), these memories were reported to be recalled privately and shared socially more often than memories from the deceased's life. Memories from the dying days were rated as less emotionally positive than those from the life, and contextual factors from the loss shaped memory recall frequency and emotional valence. Results underscore the need for appropriate end-of-life care to lay a foundation for adaptive remembering and suggest the relevance of dying days memories in therapeutic settings.