ABSTRACT
Unlike birth and marriage, widowhood is often looked upon as an unwelcome transition into a new phase of life. The widowed have to cope emotionally with the loss of their spouses as well as adapt to new circumstances resulting from the event. With an increase in life expectancy, not only is the likelihood of becoming widowed increased, the time spent as a widowed person is also lengthened. In most countries, within the band of those above the age of 65, widows outnumber widowers. For Singapore, in the year 2000, the number of widows was five times higher than widowers for the age group 65 and above compared to less than four times ten years ago (Tay 2003: 62). The total number of widowed persons in 2000 was 129,237 out of which 118,017 were above the age of 65 (DOS 2000b: 149).
