The purpose of this study is to clarify what emotional and physical phenomena and psychosocial phenomena are experienced by bereaved families who lost their children in the sinking of the Sewol ferry, and through in–depth interviews, discover how they cope with the pain over their children’s death. To this end, this study adopts a qualitative study using a Colaizzi’s phenomenological approach on eight parents of Sewol victims who were students of Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. Our analysis elicited 150 semantic compositions, 41 subjects and 14 subject groups. It was found that emotional and physical phenomena demonstrated by the family of victims of the Sewol disaster were ‘stupefaction due to the sudden death of children,’ ‘heartwrenching grief of collecting disfigured bodies,’ ‘heart–breaking wail of parting from their children,’ ‘resentment of parents who lost children,’ ‘vanity that the whole world vanished,’ ‘distressing agony as if time stopped,’ and ‘survivor’s guilt for being alive.’ Psychosocial phenomena revealed by grieving parents are ‘feeling loss of connection with others,’ ‘trauma due to people blaming victims,’ and ‘anger against irresponsible public organizations.’ The parents coped with pain over their children’s death by ‘resolving to heal and mature,’ ‘mourning through social activities,’ ‘healing through solidarity,’ and ‘relying on God amid grief.’