Widowed pensioners

[ScotHill]

I'm putting this in the Health forum because there's probably more chance of sensible answers, but it probably links strongly into mental health anyway.

We lost one parent last year and the next one to pop will likely be on the other side of the family, so two widow(er)s. The current one is starting to get bored with their time, particularly in the evenings, and depending on who goes first on the other side could determine whether one carries on just the same or the other one has some challenges facing them.

So what stories do you have of older people who cope (or not) with their partner dying - did they carry on doing the same stuff they were doing before, or really struggle to fill the void, or even start doing new things they perhaps didn't have the opportunity (or didn't feel they had the opportunity) of doing before? Doesn't have to be family, but maybe people you were close to and had a hand in supporting, because at the moment apart from spending time with them and suggesting activities they could do it feels like the ball is largely in their court...

Edited by ScotHill on Saturday 8th January 20:34