Preparing for Aging as a Single Woman

Jerdone Davis

Aging is a season of loss on many levels. Married women fear losing their spouse or outliving their children. In fact, today there are 13.6 million widows in America, and about 700,000 women become a widow in the U.S. each year. Single women who have never married can fear being alone in the last years of life. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, seventy-two-year old Jerdone Davis frankly shares some of the emotional challenges of anticipating aging alone, including addressing how we can prepare for this season while we are younger and how can we handle the fears of being alone, especially in the last season of our lives. No matter your marital status, Jerdone’s recommendations for preparing for the last season of life will encourage you to be intentional in taking steps to make things easier for loved ones after your death.

In the book co-authored by Susan Hunt and Sharon Betters, Aging with Grace, Flourishing in an Anti-Aging Culture, each chapter ends with a story-teller who is at least seventy years old. Each woman gives the readers a glimpse into what aging with grace looks like for her. One of those storytellers is Jerdone Davis. In a five-minute video for the companion series Aging with Grace, Ask an Older Woman, Jerdone answered the question: 

How do you deal with loneliness and fear as an aging single woman?

Biography of Jerdone Davis

Jerdone Davis, Ed. D., is a retired Associate Professor of Education Ministries (Erskine Theological Seminary). She presently works as Adjunct Instructor of Health-Related Courses and Nurse Refresher at Greenville Technical College. Jerdone is an author and contributor to numerous publications. Throughout her life Jerdone has enjoyed a career as a registered nurse followed by serving on the staff of Reformed University Fellowship at Clemson University where she found great joy in discipling college students. Though single, many people consider themselves Jerdone’s children because of the way she invested in their lives and continues to welcome people of all ages into her home.

Dianne Balch - How do you deal with loneliness and fear as an aging single woman?

Go to agingwithgrace.online for more Ask an Older Woman videos and information about Aging with Grace - Flourishing in an Anti-Aging Culture.