An inspiring true love story… What if you’re still single at 70?

Does that question sound like your worst nightmare come true? What if… you wake up in your seventies and discover that the space next to you in bed is still empty.

Will you feel that your life has been a complete failure?

You shouldn’t.

The truth is that the majority of women will be single in their seventies. The reason for this mostly is due to the shortage of men who typically don’t live as long as women.

My mother is single in her seventies. After thirty six years of being married to my dad, five years of living with a guy in her fifties… followed by five more years of dating the good, bad and the ugly, it wasn’t until her mid sixties that my mom found the love of her life. His name was Leo and they met in a very cosmic way.

My mother was planning to move to Arizona from Nebraska. The reason was to ditch the Midwest winters as well as to move closer to yours truly. Two weeks before she was planning to leave Nebraska for her journey to Arizona, my mother went out with a girlfriend to a local bar in town. Always dressed up, my mother has never been one to sit around and feel sorry for herself.

As she entered the bar, she saw many of the same people who, for years, have planted their behind on the bar stools of this particular little watering hole. Yet, as she took a familiar seat herself, she noticed a gentleman across the room that she had never seen before. He was tall, handsome and distinguished looking. He was her type and she wondered where he had come from. Within moments, this man walked toward my mother and as he approached, he reached for her hand and asked her if she would like to dance. Of course, my mother said “yes!”

They danced as though they had danced a thousand times just like they were. Their bodies glided across the dance floor as though no one else was even in the place. They locked eyes and my mother said, “Where did you come from?” He whispered into my mother’s ear… telling her a story of his granddaughter, Sylia. She was getting married and he was in town to walk her down this aisle. His home… was in Arizona. My mother, at sixty five… spent the next ten years of her life in Arizona loving this man. Soul mates, they were, indeed.

To those of you that believe that if you don’t find love by forty, you never will… well, I think this story demonstrates the falsity of that thinking, don’t you?

Sadly, Leo passed away a year ago and my mother now finds herself seventy – something…and single now, again for this moment. Yet, how can that be a bad thing? My mother’s journey has been full of loves, of children, grandchildren and now her time to enjoy the rest of her journey.

I will tell you, to this day… I am amazed that my mother never seems to be without a date. She meets men at dances and social events. They enjoy her company because she has never let age or life situations slow down her desire to be a fun person to be around. I should be so lucky to be seventy-something and happy, like my mother, regardless of my relationship status.

Love can arrive at any age, any time, any place in the world. Love is not age discriminatory.