The significance of home in older couple’s lives

Sirpa Andersson

National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, STAKES, Finland

My doctoral thesis from December last year was a study entitled Just the Two of Us at Home, which dealt with the meanings given to home by elderly couples. After the Second World War, home and family were important—there was a “golden period” of family life in Finland. The elderly couples of my study considered continuity to be an important objective. Continuity implies that they go on with their family life in their own home, their own house, which is familiar and thus gives them a feeling of security.

All the same, moves are common among elderly people in Finland. Retirement often raises questions as to the living arrangements in the new situation. Taking care of a large one-family house and garden may become burdensome or living at a great distance from population centres may become difficult if services are no longer available nearby. What happens when these people need help in order to cope at home? What happens when the spouse dies?