As they age, many seniors leave their homes to live in a seniors’ residence. Since those residences are both living environments and places where death happens from time to time, seniors who live there will be confronted to the loss of other residents. How is grief experienced by seniors in this setting? Research on this topic has been close to nonexistent. As part of a qualitative research project, we met 26 individuals older than the age of 65 years who had experienced the loss of another resident. Following our interviews, we conducted a thematic analysis of the data. Our results show that communication practices surrounding end of live and death vary from one seniors’ residence to the next. We highlight the strengths and limitations of these practices as well as their impacts on bereaved seniors. We discuss the ways in which our participants felt their grief was considered by others, look at the meanings of silence and communication and reflect on potential intervention strategies.

随着年龄的增长，许多老年人离开家而住在老年人的住所中。由于这些住所既是生活环境，又是不时发生死亡的地方，居住在那里的老年人将面临其他居民流失的问题。在这种情况下，老年人如何经历悲伤？关于该主题的研究几乎不存在。作为定性研究项目的一部分，我们遇到了26位65岁以上的人，他们经历了另一位居民的流失。访谈之后，我们对数据进行了主题分析。我们的结果表明，围绕生死而死的交流做法在一个老年人的住所与下一个老年人的住所之间是不同的。我们强调了这些做法的优点和局限性，以及对丧亲老人的影响。