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This study aimed to discover new meanings and uncover fruitful understandings associated with the lived experiences of family caregivers. To that end, and making use of a variety of sensitizing concepts derived primarily from symbolic interactionism and Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutic phenomenology, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with an emergent-theory-driven convenience sample of twenty-eight family caregivers, seven of whom were male, residing in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. These caregivers represented a variety of disabilities and illnesses. Analysis of the interview data, framed against a simple narrative orientation, yielded a grounded theory stressing the centrality of a particular family caregiving compassionate desire, ethic, and promise - that of "being there" for and with traumatized individuals at their "ground zero." This intention appears to have links to gift giving (both secular and divine) and a number of meaningful and significant ends. Further, "being there" is suggested in important private and public tensions, with implications for an expanded understanding of family caregiver self-identity, friendship, and the humanization of community in general as well as health care in particular.
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