摘要：This work is the result of personal experiences, adding the necessity felt of giving voice to elderly people and their families about what old age itself means, motivated by the wish of expanding the elderly people comprehension of this period of life. It is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study. As subjects, we had eleven elderly people from a suburb of Pelotas’ city – Brazil, with whom we adopted a semi-structured interview, as a survey instrument. The obtained data results showed that elderly people, in the majority, do not reflect upon or plan their old ages, noticing it only in the moment that routine expressions become visible and apparent. During the survey, the marking comparisons between the term “old” as “useless, loneliness and lack of aim for life”, and the word “elderly” as “respect and maturity”, became evident. We considered the study a positive opportunity of reflection upon life of elderly people and their families.
其他摘要：This work is the result of personal experiences, adding the necessity felt of giving voice to elderly people and their families about what old age itself means, motivated by the wish of expanding the elderly people comprehension of this period of life. It is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study. As subjects, we had eleven elderly people from a suburb of Pelotas’ city – Brazil, with whom we adopted a semi-structured interview, as a survey instrument. The obtained data results showed that elderly people, in the majority, do not reflect upon or plan their old ages, noticing it only in the moment that routine expressions become visible and apparent. During the survey, the marking comparisons between the term “old” as “useless, loneliness and lack of aim for life”, and the word “elderly” as “respect and maturity”, became evident. We considered the study a positive opportunity of reflection upon life of elderly people and their families.
