The Widowed Self: The Older Woman's Journey Through Widowhood

By Deborah Kestin van den Hoonaard

Book Overview

How do older women come to terms with widowhood? Are they vulnerable or courageous, predictable or creative in dealing with this life challenge?

Most books about widows usually focus on younger women; this book interweaves the voices of older widows their experiences and insights to show how they have come to terms with widowhood and have recreated their lives in new, unsuspected ways. The widows speak about how they relate to their children, their friends, to men. With powerful emotions they describe their husbands' final illnesses and deaths, and the challenging early days of widowhood. Disputing stereotypes about older women and widows, The Widowed Self allows the reader to visualize the impact of losing one's life partner and offers a new way of thinking about widowhood.

This new book by Deborah Kestin van den Hoonaard fills a void in previous work on widowhood. Rather than seeing these women as unfortunate, passive victims of life, the reader will come to appreciate the strength and creativity with which these women face one of life's greatest challenges, a challenge that affects more than half of all women over the age of sixty-five.

Widows and their families, scholars, social workers and other professionals who work with older adults will all be interested in reading The Widowed Self: The Older Woman's Journey through Widowhood.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0889203466
• ISBN13: 9780889203464
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Length: 186 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Informative and revealing stories of older widowed women

In The Widowed Self: The Older Woman's Journey Through Widowhood, Deborah van den Hoonaard (Associate Professor of Gerontology St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick) utilizes an autobiographical technique to present the informative and revealing stories of older widowed women and their families. Blending meticulous scholarship with a storyteller's flair for narrative, The Widowed Self is a highly recommended contribution to our understanding of the life adjustments widowhood compels upon a woman's relationships with family members, friends, relationships with men, personal finances, and the community at large.