Conclusion: Recovering ghosts

Drawing together the central themes addressed in the anthology, Caroline reflects on her own experience of parental death as a teenager to compare and contrast with the accounts in this book. Caroline documents the significance of her mother’s death following a long period of illness and how writing about her experiences of grief became interweaved into her academic accomplishments. Disentangling her own sense of self-identity and the boundaries between the personal and professional became increasingly difficult while establishing herself as a researcher of grief and bereavement. Writing 20 years on from the death of both her parents, Caroline reflects on the loss of the sense of home and the importance of belonging.