2:00-4:00 pm
Forest Hill Conference Centre

When a woman's husband dies, her life changes dramatically. Almost twenty years ago, in partnership with the Third Age Centre, Deborah van den Hoonaard carried out an interview study of women's experiences as widows. Based on that study, she wrote The Widowed Self: The Older Woman's Journey through Widowhood, published in 2001 by Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

She has recently conducted a new study with a new cohort of widows to see how things have changed and how they have remained the same. Rather than focusing on grief, these studies looked at how older women, separated by one generation, navigated their lives after their husbands died.

This presentation demonstrates the women's creativity and strength and illustrates how changes in the social context and the way they have lived their adult lives have changed the way women experience and think about their lives as widows. This lively talk will include quotations from the widows' interviews to illustrate the findings.

Please register by emailing 3rdage@stu.ca or phoning 452-0526

Admission: $5 TAC Members; $10 Non-Members, STU Students free of charge