The Life-World of Older Widows:

Abstract

There have been few efforts to define and describe the context of older widows' lived experiences. In a larger study of older widow's experience of living alone, context was defined in a manner consistent with Husserlian phenomenology. A series of lengthy interviews were conducted with seven older widows who were living alone at home. Context was understood as the life-world of older widows and described in those terms. A classification scheme of contextual elements, descriptors, and features was developed with the participants and considered credible by them.