Love Can Happen at Any Age

Just this past weekend, we attended a relative’s wedding in New England. The groom was 43 and the bride was 35. Of course, they were adorable and looked much younger and so happy. They met online as many couples do these days. So the current younger generation may have passed the era of marrying their high school or even college sweethearts. People are marrying older and meeting through online dating or careers.

Two of my neighbors recently had their first baby. The wife is 32 and from another country. The husband is 52 and met his wife online then brought her to the United States. When I spoke to John after the baby was born, he said, “Ramona is my best friend; I’m so happy.” He confessed that before marrying he used to party a lot, but now he is content to stay at home and thrilled to have a son at an age when many are first-time grandparents.

My former neighbor lost her husband of many years to cancer. While attending a hospice grieving group, she met Buddy who had recently lost his wife. They dated and eventually married while Eileen was in her late 60s and Buddy in his late 70s. Initially they travelled the world together—something that Eileen always longed to do, but her first husband did not. Now they travel less, but are still together having a wonderful time.

In Florida, we live in an over-55 community. So the bar is raised even higher. Two of our neighbors met at the Pines when both had been widowed and were on the same bowling team. Today Muriel is in her 80s and Seymour is in his 90s. They offered to help us out by checking on our condo while we are up north. We enjoy them so much and had them over for dinner last winter. Muriel told a story about her cat that followed her to school and would come back to wait outside to walk her home. Seymour said, “Muriel, why are you telling them that? It happened when you were a little girl. That was a hundred years ago!” Ahhh…love.

In today's news, Hope Yen claims that there are fewer marriages because of the recession. "In the US, marriages fell to a record low in 2009, with just over 52% of adults...saying they were joined in wedlock, compared to 57% in 2000. The never-married included 46.3% of young adults 25-34....It was the first time the share of unmarried young adults exceeded those who were married." (Um...that doesn't make sense mathmatically, does it?)

So, even though many of our generation married when we were in our early 20s, it is not often the case anymore. Yen's theory about the recession may be partly true. Typically, young people now wait until they are in their late twenties or early thirties or even older for a variety of reasons. But if that paradigm hasn’t worked for you, no worries. Love can happen at any age.