(New York Times) – What should be expected of an intimate partner when a companion suffers a health crisis? Seniors and their families increasingly confront the question.

“We have a clear and shared understanding of what it means to be in a marriage,” said Susan Brown, a sociologist at Bowling Green State University in Ohio who studies aging and relationships. “We don’t have that kind of road map for a cohabiting or living-apart-together lifestyle.”

Yet unmarried partnerships among older Americans continue to climb. Census data from 2023 showed that of Americans ages 65 to 74, 3.9 percent of men and 2.6 percent of women, almost 1.1 million people, were living with a partner, not a spouse. Twenty years earlier, the proportions were just 1.7 percent for men and 1 percent for women. (Read More)