I was 53. I used to think the average widow's age was 70-something. I thought I was on the young side of widowhood. Then I read an article that said the average widow is widowed in her 50s.

56. Steve was 61.

61

It was certainly true for me, Cottage242. We were looking forward to the retirement years. Now I'm semi-retired and have nothing to do. No way am I planning to travel the US by myself..

37; she was just two months shy of 51

55

51

44

Anna - do you think you're too young to be "here"? Is that why the concern with age?
The widow/ers social group I run gas members as youg as 31 (widowed at 28) and as old as 65+. A friend was widowed at 24.
Death knows no age boundaries, grief knows no time limits. I lost a son at two months - I'm still grieving him 24 years on.
Accept that no matter our ages, the pain of being on this journey is the same. That's what I love about this group. We all get it.

Anna, as i see people post in response to your question, I am struck by the diversity. Some lost spouses of over thrity years, others fiancees. Death comes to us all, the rich, the poor, the old, the young. It is just in our modern Western civilzation that we try to ignore and pretend it won't happen to us.
We are all united in the same fact, we lost our spouse or soulmate and in doing so we lost a significant portion of ourselves. We are all trying to make sense of death and how it affected us, regroup and live full lives. This applies just as much if you are twenty as if you were ninety. Grief just is. The rebuild is up to each of us, in our own time and in our own way.
Hugs, Val

57, and my husband was 59

49

33 my husband was 45

55

Just turned 34