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The death of a significant person in one’s life forces individuals to engage in a number of grief-related tasks, including reconstructing a narrative about the relationship, resituating their relationship with the deceased individual, and developing a new sense of self post-loss. The dominant narrative of grief, however, generally assumes that the experience is a finite, linear process of detachment. Given past research challenging the reality of that experience, we draw upon Doka’s (2002) theory of disenfranchised grief to propose that grief is not only a possible temporary state of disenfranchisement, but rather a perpetual, ongoing state of being disenfranchised. This condition is primarily maintained by the need to constantly navigate the lines between the dominant narrative of grief upheld in a given culture and one’s personal experience and performance of it. We propose a narrative approach to the concept of grief as a potential solution to this problem, and outline several new potential avenues for research on grief.

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered life dramatically, including grieving practices. This study examines how people grieved death when they were unable to engage in traditional mourning rituals. Participants shared ways their experiences with grief were affected by the pandemic through themes of (1) physical isolation, including feeling together while apart, and, (2) challenges to grief management, like lack of nonverbal communication and feeling delegitimized. Participants also spoke of memorable messages deemed helpful or hurtful, including (1) emphasizing the death over the loss, (2) community, and (3) faith and advice. The findings yield implications regarding the nature of communal coping, flexibility to grieving practices, and disenfranchised grief during a global pandemic.

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