Abstract
The purpose of the study was to explore the grief process of fathers who lost a child to cancer; how they experienced grief, accepted their child's death and changed themselves in the process. Subjects were five fathers, aged 39-49. The time since the child's death was between 3 years and 10 years. Data was collected by semi-structured interviews and analyzed using an inductive qualitative method.
Seven categories were identified. (1) Sorrow. (2) Confrontation of longing for the lost child. (3) Need to accept the reality of the child's death. (4) Acceptance of the child's death. (5) Transfiguration of values. (6) Transfiguration of the meaning of the sorrow. (7) Keeping a bond with the child.
Fathers grieved deeply and they experienced guilt and regret. However, the quality of these feeling was different from mother's guilt feelings. Work has a special role for father's grief process. In this study fathers were able to cry and express the full range of their sorrow and loss. This finding demonstrated that fathers who lose a child do not necessarily experience stunted affective expression of their grief due to their role expectations.
