6 spirituality, the spiritual signiﬁcance of coincidence and clairvoyance, and possession of a “sixth sense.” The coinci- dences she encountered before our interview convinced her that her family should participate in our study. Pauline reported that her grandfather wanted her mother to attend Beaver College (now Arcadia University). Receiving a letter from Arcadia University requesting participation in research on end of life was a “sign.” On the ﬁrst meeting, Pauline said that the interviewer (H. K. B.) “could pass for the double of their good neighbor.” Pauline believed her father choreographed these coincidences. She attributed her ability to handle her father’s death to “prayer,” which helped her through the funeral that she remembers “in a haze.” Accepting his death was due to “Divine intervention.” “The peacefulness of him, I think helped us cope.” Joseph also looked to his belief system to help him endure his father’s decline and passing. When Joseph was asked how important his Catholic beliefs are in everyday life, he replied: It’s the center of my life. It’s the focus of my life. . . . And I think that my Catholicism was a major part in helping me to come to terms and being prepared for my father’s death. And in assuming my role in life as head of the family, now that my father is not here. So, yes, it’s the core of my life. The Marino family felt a sense of pride in the dignity they displayed when Joseph Sr. died. They believed they had “done right” by adhering to his wishes for “no more doctors or hospital.” Pauline spoke for the entire family. “We had no regrets.” 4. Discussion It may be expected that an elderly husband’s end of life will disrupt his widow’s sense of self, her life roles, and notions about the future [18]. The expectation for such a disruption in the lives of adult children is lessened by the breadth of their social worlds. Their grief is often diﬀused by the competing needs of spouses, children, and grandchildren [19]. We note that the signiﬁcant persons in the Marinos’ lives were each other. Among participants in our study, the Marinos were the only adult children who remained in the family home throughout their lives. The singularity of their living arrangements and relationships with each other made them an extreme case example [16]. The encapsulated world of the Marinos engendered consistency not only in each of their narratives about Joseph Sr.’s end of life, but also in the emotional investment they made in him. Widow and children agreed that he was the “cement of the family,” and all worried that the family might “come apart” without him. Family members united around their belief that Joseph Sr. wanted them to “stay together” in the family home. In regard to their uniﬁed grief, the Marinos may have diﬀered in degree but not in kind from other widows and adult children in our study. Most of our respondents united around the “we” of the family in constructing a narrative Journal of Aging Research about the meaning of the husband and father’s life, dying, and death. Their recollection of experiences and roles from the recent and distant past shaped and continues to shape relationships with other family members. We used three themes to organize the major aspects of the family’s narrative of Joseph Sr.’s end of life: (1) how the family imputes meaning to the end of life, (2) the past and present role of each family member, and (3) The family’s ways of coping with their grief, particularly through their belief systems. Frances, Joseph Jr., and Pauline found meaning in view- ing Joseph Sr.’s qualities as remarkable. They described him with superlatives and viewed his peaceful death as beﬁtting his “good” life. Similarly, most family members in our study highlighted whatever was notable about their loved one’s life and death, what distinguished him from others, and his irreplaceable role in their families and their lives [1]. Unlike other families, however, it was not Frances who sanctiﬁed her husband’s life [20], but the children who viewed their father as “saintly” and as possessing “an innocent goodness.” In regard to family roles, Joseph seemed to relish his new role as “head of the family.” Frances said she must take on the task of “getting the children ready for when I’m not here any more.” Pauline believed that her role in the family became precarious when her father died. Although their roles are peculiar to their unique family, the idea of “taking on” or “trying out” a new role in the family after the death of the husband and father was not unusual in our sample of families. Many “new” roles of adult children centered on concern for their mother and how and where she will live out her life [21]. Unlike Frances, most widows did not feel it was their job to comfort bereaved children. Rather, widows in our sample felt disappointed that their children could not understand the loss they were experiencing [22]. Pauline’s and Joseph’s belief systems helped them endure their father’s end of life. Joseph Jr. ﬁnds great comfort in his Catholic faith, and Pauline thinks that her “sixth sense” attunes her to manifestations of her father’s presence in her life. Frances does not ﬁnd solace in traditional Catholic tenets, such as a belief in an afterlife, but continues to pray to Jesus and favorite saints daily. Similar to Pauline and Frances Marino, most family members we interviewed followed an idiosyncratic spirituality. Sources for belief systems were a blending of beliefs and practices of various religions, family and cultural myths, stories, and superstitions, and popular versions of traditional religions. It is likely that the Marinos, because of the intensity of the family tie, remain more dependent on each other for their roles and for the meaning they create from Joseph Sr.’s life and death than more typical families in our study. Yet, the Marinos typify most bereaved families, who, like links in a chain in which a major link is gone, go about their lives, sometimes tightening the remaining links. Acknowledgments The authors are extremely grateful to the family of Mr. Marino for sharing their stories of his death with us. Data