Final Conversations, Phase 2: Children and Everyday Communication

Abstract

This qualitative study examined messages of everyday communication (small talk and routine interactions). The importance of these messages was highlighted in light of their role in creating structure, safety, and meaning making in the family at the end of life. In addition, family rituals that developed from children's everyday communication were explored and discussed. Retrospective interviews were completed with children. Descriptions of small talk topics revolved around school, daily activities, sporting events, and shared experiences about mutual hobbies. Routine interactions included reading bedtime stories, doing chores together, and doing other everyday activities with one another. Interviews demonstrated that everyday communication helped children make sense of the death of their loved one. These innocuous, common, and routine behaviors also gave children avenues for humor and positive talk and provided comfort, a sense of security, and normalcy during the family's negotiation of the death of a loved one.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Camp El Tesero de la Vida, Camp Courageous, John Newcomb Camp, and the Hospice of the Western Reserve for their assistance in the completion of our interviews with the children.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maureen Keeley

Maureen Keeley is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Texas State University, San Marcos. She is a relational communication scholar who focuses on communication within close relationships in the midst of crises. For the past decade, she has primarily focused on communication at the end of life.

Paula Baldwin

Paula Baldwin a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication, George Mason University. She is a health communication scholar whose research interests center on interpersonal, instructional, and organizational issues in end-of-life and palliative care.