Introduction: Suicide notes have been widely studied as windows into the mental state of the deceased, often used for psychological or forensic purposes. However, little attention has been paid to how these final messages are experienced by those left behind. For individuals bereaved by suicide—a group already facing complicated grief processes—the presence of a note may uniquely shape their mourning, either as a potential source of meaning or as a further burden.
Purpose: This study aims to understand the loss experiences of individuals whose first-degree relatives or romantic partners ended their lives by leaving a suicide note and to examine how they attribute meaning to that final message.
Method: We conducted semi-structured, online interviews with four women (ages between 30-56) whose first-degree relative or romantic partner died by suicide and left a note. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed idiographically using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), moving from line-by-line coding to clustered themes through an iterative, reflexive process.
Results: Through the interpretative analysis, three superordinate themes emerged: (1) "The Absence of the Other Side of the Relationship," (2) "A(void)ance of Meaning: Difficulty in Processing the Suicide," and (3) "A Lens Overshadowing the Voice of the Deceased."
Conclusions: The findings suggest that suicide letters may not necessarily facilitate grieving; instead, they can complicate the process. Due to the one-way nature of these messages, since the deceased is non-responding, the individuals bereaved by suicide themselves establish a one-sided relationship with the deceased, a relationship characterized by anger since they remain unanswered.