America is graying: people are living longer, and our population is aging. Between now and 2030, the number of people in the U.S. over the age of 65 is expected to double, and the number of people over 80 is expected to almost triple.Aging Our Wayfollows thirty elders (ages 85-102) living alone, at home, to understand how they create meaningful lives in old age. Drawing on the latest interdisciplinary scholarship on aging, Meika Loe examines how the very old navigate the challenges of loneliness, disability, and loss, while staying healthy, connected, and comfortable. Whereas many popular books approach old age as a social problem and old people as dependent, depressed, and disabled,Aging Our Wayviews them as they really are, actively negotiating aging, ageism, and health. Many self-help books revolve around successful or productive aging, but rather than focus on the holy triumvirate of diet, exercise, and medicine to defy age, the elders in this book mobilize a much wider range of resources. In their own voices, we hear how the oldest old achieve comfort and quality of life by striving for continuity, touch, connections, support, control, dignity, learning, and new challenges. In many ways, these elders are role models: they represent the vast majority of Americans who hope to and are currently aging in their own homes and communities.