Unexpected widow

"Many women will face widowhood as they age, since men generally marry younger women, and women live on average seven years longer than men. 
Today 11% of American women are widows. 
At age 65, 36% of women have had their husbands pass away, and there are four widowed women for every one widowed man. 
Over the age of 65, more than half of the women in the United States have lost their partners.
Yet, while many of us are - at least intellectually, if not emotionally -- prepared to lose our husbands when we reach old age, few of us anticipate losing a partner when we are still in middle age. For women who must confront the tragedy of becoming widows when they are in their 40s and 50s, the loss can prove especially difficult. Many of these women struggle to resume their lives after the deaths of their husbands, particularly if they have young children. Yet while it is true that some women never fully recuperate from the profound grief of losing their partners, other women manage to go on and even flourish." 


-Sarah Brokaw - Fortytude