This book investigates how elderly women living in chronic poverty navigate domestic and social adversity through their personal relationship with the divine. Helen Black, drawing on extensive qualitative research funded by the National Institute on Aging, presents a framework that centers the subjective experiences of marginalized women. By prioritizing the voices of her subjects, the author argues that these women possess a profound resilience that transcends their material circumstances.

Experts in the fields of gerontology and anthropology recognize this work as a significant contribution to narrative research methods. Readers frequently note the balance between academic rigor and the intimate, humanizing nature of the personal accounts provided.