ABSTRACT
Final conversations give people who are dying and their loved ones an opportunity to find meaning through conversation. In this chapter, we discuss farewell behaviors and final conversations, including ways that family members construct goodbyes. For communication researchers as well as for families, communication is important in all facets of our lives, but especially as we prepare for death. Given humans’ reluctance to acknowledge death, we suggest that end-of-life communication should be lifelong, ongoing, affective, and relational, allowing for communication to assist in the construction of what so many people indicate they want at the end of life: a “good death.”
