ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the dailyliving experience of the single elderly women who lived in the LosAngeles area of the US. The phenomenological approach, especiallyVan Manen's methodology was applied for analyzing the data inthis study. The sample was were 5 Korean elderly women agedover 75 years. The author did participant observation of their dailylives and interviewed them in-depth with open ended anddescriptive questions in order to get them talk about their livedexperiences in their own terms. From the protocols, significantstatements about daily living experiences were organized andgrouped into 4 theme clusters. The major themes emerged fromthe analysis were ‘health maintaining,’ ‘self-esteem maintaining,’‘doing of all obligations as a human being,’ and ‘acceptance of lifeand death.’