“We might think of these widows as Protestant nuns. As best as I can make out, the early church enrolled widows (of a certain character) who were over the age of sixty, and the church expected ministerial service from them. If they departed from this service into idleness, it was a disgrace. If they married again, this was counted as unfaithfulness to Christ, which indicated that they were bound by some kind of vow to Him to not marry again. There is something here to make both Protestants and Roman Catholics unhappy — Protestants because I have used the word nun, and Catholics because the qualifications for being such a nun are clean contrary to the institution they have set up” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 136).
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The Visitation Sisters of the Catholic Church are a little bit like this in that they welcome late (like really late) vocations from widows whose children are settled in the world.