the.com/ambiguous loss
grief with no funeral, no closure, no finish line to walk toward.
means a loss that stays unresolved because the person is physically absent but psychologically present, or physically present but psychologically gone.
from coined in the 1970s by psychologist Pauline Boss, who studied families of soldiers missing in action and later dementia caregivers, noticing their grief had no rulebook because nothing had officially ended.
two typesphysical absence with presence, or presence with psychological absence
dementia linkboss called it the longest goodbye
no closure neededboss argued learning to live with it beats resolving it