Abstract
Loss of a loved one is challenging when it occurs (Holmes & Rahe, 1967). Long after, individuals remember such events but may also ruminate (e.g., Eisma et al., 2012). Recalling loss and illness may, however, also have positive aspects. Participants (N = 99 younger adults, 87 older adults) narrated their life’s two most challenging events and a neutral event. Older adults were more likely than young to share death-illness events. To examine this further, participants who shared a death-illness memory were selected for mixed methods, within-participant analyses (N = 69) comparing the death-illness event to both another non-death challenging event and a neutral event. Rumination about, and Personal Growth from each event were rated and themes of Communion (e.g., love and friendship; McAdams, 2001) were reliably content-coded (kappa = .79) from the memories. ANOVAs indicate personal growth and communion occur more for death-illness events than for other challenging events or neutral events, ps < 0.001. Rumination was more likely following a death/illness or challenging event compared to a neutral event, ps < 0.001. In terms of age, young adults were more likely to ruminate following any type of event than older adults, p < 0.05. This refutes the stereotype that older adults ruminate more, in general, than younger adults. Overall, the study findings identify death-illness events as ones that individuals may suffer from ruminating about but that are not uniformly difficult: they also result in greater feelings of personal growth and stronger expressions of feelings of communion with others.