Table 4.

Identity reconstruction processes observed during follow-up meetings (N=35)

Identity reconstruction	Example (Follow-up meeting number)	n (%)
Good parent	I have no doubt that I did a really good job caring for him. (#6)	23 (66)
Life changes	I have to figure out what my purpose is now. (#18)	22 (63)
Relationships	I had another baby. Yeah, L- and everything’s well with him. And that’s kept me going. (#4)	18 (51)
Work	I am getting ready to go back to school and hopefully going to be up here working soon. (#10)	9 (26)
Environment	She said, “We have to sell the house.”… We have another house on the river. We bought it a few years ago for investment… So she said, “Fix that up and we’re going to go.” (#34)	5 (14)
Travel	We’re going on a cruise…getting away, just the two of us …we met on a cruise 22 years ago. (#1)	2 (6)
Hobbies	I’m back to the choir now…I got to do something I like and he liked and so I’ll do it in his honor and move on. (#1)	1 (3)
Number of children	There’s always that question, how many kids do you have? I hate that question. I have four kids, but … (#2)	2 (6)

^*n (%) = number and percent of follow-up meetings demonstrating each meaning-making process