A DIALOGIC FAREWELL: ENHANCING THE "I-THOU" QUALITY OF A PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP

Abstract

Death farewells provide interpersonal exchanges of affection, reassurance, acceptance, reaffirmation, and support. When my parents became terminally ill, however, our behavior went much deeper than simply saying "goodbye." It served as dialogue, as a fusion between us, allowing us to perceive and accept the whole being of the other. This autoethnographic account of my experience with the death of my parents shows how acts of words, songs, gifts, death, and farewells can contribute a dialogic function.