Between Worlds: A Relocation Dilemma for the Appalachian Elderly

Abstract

An historically based spatial separation of old people from their children has generated a critical relocation dilemma for the present generation of Appalachian elderly — reconciling the physical, social, and emotional support of a familiar environment with the desire to be close to family. This article, based on a four-year participant observation study of a panel of elderly persons in a rural northern Appalachian community, explores the tension between factors that reinforce inertia and those that encourage relocation to the homes of children living outside Appalachia. The article traces and illustrates a normative trajectory involving several phases — departure of children, accommodation, seasonal migration, crisis, relocation, holding on, and severance — that characterize the decision process whereby, over a period of years, the dilemma is gradually resolved.