Positive Dying in Later Life: Spiritual Resiliency Among Sixteen Hospice Patients

ABSTRACT

A qualitative study was conducted based on face-to-face interviews with 16 terminally ill older adults who reported experiencing a high level of quality of life in their psychosocial and spiritual domains. The findings point to different ways that these older adults were able to confront the dying process and their impending death through their spiritual tenacity. Major themes which emerged from their narratives are highlighted in this article: developing closeness to the divine existence, fearless acknowledgment of impending death, revisiting the meaning of death and dying, active preparation for death, transpersonal experience, and the process to surrender to the Higher Power by giving up their personal control.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging
• death and dying
• hospice
• spirituality
• resiliency
• terminal care