The first and second authors of this article are educated nurses
and have experience from working as genetic counselors. During
genetic counseling with women at risk of hereditary breast and
ovarian cancer, we have experienced that when the topic of a
mother who died of cancer arises, the women often have started
to cry. Also, when reanalyzing the transcripts of the qualitative
interviews in the study, it was noted that when themes related to
a close relative of a woman’s family arose, and particularly in
regard to the death of a mother from cancer at a relatively early
age, the woman often started to cry. Mosher and Danoff-Burg
(2005) have stressed that observing a parent’s extreme physical
and emotional suffering, as well as the potentiality of preparing
for bereavement, may be traumatic. Daughters who were adolescents
at the time of their mother’s diagnosis were significantly
more uncomfortable about involvement in their mothers’ illnesses
than daughters who were 20 years of age or older at the
time of diagnosis. Van Oostrom, et al. (2006) found that individuals
dealing with parental cancer in childhood (under the
age of 13) reported the highest level of cancer-related worry and
risk perception.