Sentence:  Combining widowed, separated, and divorced elders into a single group ("<WSD>desolated</WSD>"), the data indicated that <WSD>desolated</WSD> elders were slightly more lonely than either married or never-married older people (although this trend was not statistically significant at the conventional .05 level). 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To abandon or forsake something.