“Don’t Say Merry Christmas to Aunt Kay”: The Reflexive Nature of Biographical Research

This study, a work of family biographical research, connects the subject and me across time in terms of complex grief. Complex grief is understood as the loss of someone close in which the grieving process is additionally difficult to process. Complicating factors can be a death that was unexpected/accidental, the result of violence, or in my case the death of a child. Complex grief can make it difficult for one to progress though the stages of grief indicated by persistent depression, anger, post-traumatic stress, and avoidance of things that remind one of the death.