"Life Ever After" by Patricia Monteiro (7 PHOTOS)

"Even with all the rush and fast pace of New York City, many elderly women manage to keep up with their lives in their own rhythm and grace," photographer Patricia Monteiro begins in a statement on her website. "'Life Ever After' documents a community of women that live alone after losing companions, relatives or friends. To look at them is also to look at the beauty of life, that definitely does not end when you reach your 80s."

 "Life Ever After" is her recent photography series, a project that follows the daily lives of elderly women -- more specifically, octogenarians and nonagenarians -- who live alone in New York City. Monteiro was inspired by her own grandmother, a woman who battled the effects of Alzheimer's disease and was sadly inactive in the twilight years of her life. In an attempt to process the illness, the photographer visited a senior center in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, where she met with Rita Immerman, an 88-year-old lover of art and culture who became the first portrait subject. Via