ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of social support in the lives of these seven African American elders, namely Eloise Little, Ruby Washington, Viola Worth, Reverend Joseph Scott, Lucy Oliver, Geraldine Starr, and Sally Finch. The daily life for these seven African American elders often is an insular experience. Numerous impediments—physical impairment, environmental barriers, embarrassment, lack of social support, fear of crime, and poverty—keep them increasingly housebound and interfere with their previous avenues of social integration. They are increasingly bound to their homes and, like many frail elders, often find themselves isolated from family and friends and from the world outside. They are unique, however, in the daily rituals and coping strategies they develop and in the ways they adapt, with varying degrees of success, to their circumscribed worlds. While they aspire to self-reliance in their daily lives, the reality often is the need for assistance.
