Memories of suffering: Exploring the life story narratives of twice-widowed elderly women

Narratives of suffering often reflect remembered accounts of past traumas and other significant events in individuals' lives that they deem worthy of public presentation and feel comfortable enough to share. This paper examines the life stories of three elderly women who were widowed early in life (“off-time”), eventually remarried, and were later re-widowed “on time.” Their narratives illustrate the complexities of the transitions from wife to widow and from widowhood to remarriage and back again. Commonalities and differences in the narrative are explored, including how suffering was revealed, with an emphasis on understanding the utility of what the women chose to remember, tried to forget, and opted to reveal about their lives. Also considered is their outright rejection of the identity “widow.” Within the broader discussion of remembering and suffering, how individual histories contextualize reactions to subsequent events is also explored.