A Late Love

A Late Love can refer to a love in later life or to the death of your love.  For me, both references apply.

Unexpectedly at 75 years of age I met up with an Architect I had known years before and we reconnected and eventually moved in together. I certainly wasn’t  looking for a man in my life; over the years since My Dashing Young Scotsman had died I had made a separate , single life for myself.  And now this.

Then in October last year, Patricia  from Patricia’s Place gave the prompt “You are beautiful” and quoted Sophia Loren –

“Nothing makes a woman more beautiful
than the belief that she is beautiful.”
Sofia Loren

I responded to this prompt and part of it is here.

“And now she had reconnected with a man whom she had known many years ago and he thought her beautiful.

This was a new and different love. Not the heady love of youth but the mature love of two older people.

Did he have rose coloured spectacles or was it wishful thinking on both their parts? They had enjoyed meeting for lunch and/or dinner over the past couple of months since they reconnected but she thought they were friends. His wife of many years had been dead only a couple of years. But here he was telling her she was beautiful not only to look at but inside too. He loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Could this work at their age? Were they each too settled in their particular ways to make room for a new love? And how would they merge the two families? Would their children accept them? So many unanswered questions but the main and most important one was did she love him and could she imagine spending the rest of her life with him?

She didn’t have to ponder the question for long. They had a history together (albeit a working relationship), they liked the same things – music, theatre, old buildings (he was an architect) travel, reading – oh so many interests in common. And they had many friends in common. Although this was the Capital City it was quite small so this was not unexpected. But then she realised that over the past months she had come to love this man. So very different in all ways from her late husband but this was to be expected and she wasn’t looking for somebody to replace him.  He waited for her answer. She gave it to him with a smile on her lips. “Oh yes, I will come and live with you and we will grow old together.” she said as he wiped the tears of joy from her face.”

 

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It was a happy and exciting 2 years but as all things must, it came to an abrupt end in 2015.  And so came  into being the other reference of the statement.  He became my Late Love when he died in 2015.

But what memories I have of my Late Love.  And now once again I am making a separate and single life for myself.  Different to any of the other ways in which I have lived during this long and exciting life of mine.  And I am eternally thankful for all I have and all the friends and  family, who help me make this new life a happy one.

 

“I wanted a perfect ending.  
Now I’ve learned the hard way, that
some poems don’t rhyme
and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end. “
Gilda Radner Comedienne, writer 1946-1989

Note – This sentence was altered after the post was published –

So very different in all ways from her late husband but this was to be expected and she wasn’t looking for somebody to replace him.  Now it makes sense.