Loss of one's child represents one of the most traumatic events a human may endure. Few effective interventions have been documented. The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of touch therapy on grieving mothers. Bereavement responses of mothers who had lost a child in the previous 6–60 months ( n 31, intervention group; n 34, comparison group) were evaluated for significant differences between intervention (touch therapy) and comparison groups, measured by the Grief Experience Inventory (GEI). Analysis of the nine clinical scales of the GEI demonstrated statistically significant differences for the intervention group on the following scales: despair ( F 8.290, p .006), depersonalization ( F 4.904, p .031), and somatization ( F 6.833, p .012). Significance of findings as they relate to treatment of complicated grief is discussed.

Drawing on literature relevant to the impact of sibling death, the authors examined the invisible loss of siblings never known. This article presents findings of a phenomenological study of 15 adult siblings who "storied" the psychological presence and power of a deceased infant sibling never known but who acted as memory keepers for their unknown sibling. Transcriptions of the 15 interviews were analyzed usng NVivo software to support development of thematic categories. The initial 29 subthemes were collapsed into 3 overarching themes of personal loss/ unacknowledged loss, continuing bonds/memory keeping and sense-making. The participants' experiences reflect support for unaddressed and unacknowledged loss for the phenomenon of loss of an unknown sibling. The retrospective narratives echo their perceived roles as memory keepers of their unknown siblings. For many participants, the research process itself was the first recognition of a sense of loss.

Family caregivers attending to chronically ill family members within the community are vulnerable to psychological and medical health issues. Rural caregivers may be at increased risk because of fewer resources. This pilot study explored whether rural caregivers would learn and provide gentle massage to their chronically ill loved ones, would find study participation burdensome, and would realize benefits from providing the massage. Positive results in each of the three areas suggest that providing caregivers with instruction on gentle massage techniques for their chronically ill loved ones may support and enhance rural caregivers' perceptions of self-efficacy and self-agency and thus possibly decrease caregiver vulnerability. The findings of this study are important in light of increasing numbers of chronically ill persons who rely predominantly on home care by family members within the community.

A child's death profoundly affects family dynamics, stories, and even other siblings' perceived reasons for being. This influence is often sustained over time to affect not only the lost child's parents and siblings, but also future generations. Health care and mental health care workers frequently encounter such stories, but little is known about the actual phenomenon, which may be a form of disenfranchised grief. This conceptual article explores the construct of transgenerational grief as it pertains to adults' lifelong grief responses to a sibling whom they did not know, but whose “ghost” has been important in the family. The authors consider this construct within its historical family context, proposing that miscarriages and infant losses that a family experienced even a century ago may have resembled unresolved grief, due in part to brief, unresolved mourning. Bereavement theory, Bowenian family theory, and constructionist theory of grief are woven together to create speculative theoretical underpinnings to support transgenerational grief and its impact as uncovered in the authors' study of personal stories of sibling loss.

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