In our society, "ageism" prevails. Beauty, sex, and physical charisma belong to the young and not the old is a general belief that unfortunately, several elderly as well believe.
We consider Old age is the period when marriage disintegrates, not through separation or divorce, but through the death of husband or wife. The direction of the difference usually found between ages of husbands and wives in our society leads to a different situation for women and men. While only about 11 percent of the men in the age group 60-64 are widowers, 31 percent of the women are widows. In the succeeding age groups larger and larger percentages of both sexes are widowed, but, while in the age group 75-79 only one third of the men are widowers, more than two thirds of the women have lost their spouses through death (Wise, T. N. 1983). Loss of the marriage partner thus occurs much more frequently among elderly women than among elderly men. To the student of the family relations of the aged, this is an important fact because of the attendant problems of loneliness, inadequate means of support, and readjustment in living arrangements that typically accompany widowhood during old age.
The loss of husband or wife destroys a pattern of affection expression and satisfaction that has been built up over perhaps a half-century. When widowhood is combined with a move into an institution, a lodging house, or the home of a married son or daughter, habits of many years duration are also destroyed. Although in an idealized picture of family life, the family of the son or daughter establishes a new affectional relationship with the old person, integration of the old person into the family circle does not always occur. The old person may be as lonely and detached in his new surroundings as he was when living alone.
