Abstract
This paper aims to establish similarities and discrepancies between the speech on their own well-being, in two groups of elderly widows of rural origin, in asylum and living with their family in the city of Caratinga, state of Minas Gerais. Eight women were interviewed, four institutionalized and four in the community. The central ideas in their speeches were compared. Results showed that the elderly institutionalized widows consider work the meaning of their lives; the social interchange is absent from their speech; illness acquires another connotation; healthcare is not autonomous; and the presence of cultural issues, such as religiosity, is strong among them. We concluded that institutionalization gives those elderly women a different representation in relation to their own welfare. The issues that characterize ageing as a phase of losses, solitude and dependency are more intense among the elderly women who live in asylums.
aging; widowhood; women; homes for aged; happiness