Objective:

Understand the meanings of the experience lived by institutionalized elderly people due to the death of a partner.

Methodology:

For this study it used a qualitative phenomenological design.

Results:

13 elderly people interviewed who established in a institution. The phenomenon was separated in 8 categories connected: day by day and replacement; feelings about suffering and peer's death; farewell rituals; death as a natural process and self-reflection; loneliness, adaptation to the loss with their peers; caregiver's role; professionals and poor perception of support.

Conclusion:

Their experiences allow to comprehend the process that elder people lives in nursing home to experiment death's peer, their perceptions about their feelings and how they said goodbye to them. This situation makes that elder people reflect about their own death and support networks. This knowledge can contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon and can be useful as guide to make nursing care based on resident's needs when they have to deal with peers death.

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