"Move on"...! The elderly, the contingencies of the street and the aesthetics of existence

The objective of this article is to make an in-depth analysis of the experience of old age and/or aging on the streets. This is a case study of descriptive, exploratory character and qualitative approach, which reflects on a specific subjective trajectory of Noel, an elderly man born in Carpina, Zona da Mata de Pernambuco, northeast Brazil. A sociodemographic questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to produce data. The narratives were submitted to discourse analysis, anchored in the psychoanalytic perspective. The results of this study encompass social segregation and show that the elderly subject in the course of his life suffered numerous losses, including the death of parents, siblings, rupture of ties and family conflicts, feels abandoned, helpless and that, associated with unemployment and chemical dependence, directly influenced his living conditions, exposed to various vulnerabilities and with fragile health because he is an elderly person and is homeless. Despite his precarious life context, he has a willpower that mobilizes him and drives him to the incessant search for meaning to live.