Jan Fowler is a television producer/host, national speaker, and award-winning columnist on senior topics. Look for her book, Hot Chocolate for Seniors, featuring more than 100 heartwarming, humorous, inspiring stories–including senior love and romance–written by seniors, for seniors, and about seniors, due out in October (Balboa Press, a Division of Hay House). www.janfowler.com or jan@janfowler.com
Life is an odysey. We’re all trying to make the most of it…you never know what’s right around the corner. And if you’ve been blessed to live till now, then your dating life is far from over! It makes no difference whether you’re in your 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, or 100-plus. It is my hope to help you stretch your vision for your life and inspire you to join the millions of us seniors who’ve decided we’re not going to just sit around waiting for our arteries to harden.
Instead we’re out there taking a chance on meeting someone new! Did I say ‘in your 90s’? Did I say ‘100’? Well, I’m here to tell you that estrogen and testosterone may be driving forces till we’re 100 years old. How could I possibly know that? Because I witnessed it firsthand in skilled nursing facilities during the years when I was a speech pathologist working with recovering stroke patients. Many of my patients remained flirtatious with members of the opposite sex from their wheelchairs! We thought nothing of it. To us, it seemed perfectly natural.
Senior dating is becoming more and more common because we’re living longer than ever before and everyone wants and needs love and companionship, whether we’re willing to admit it or not.
We seniors are not falling apart! We’ve discovered we can’t have the rose without the thorns, so we’ve learned the value of taking better care of ourselves by eating sensibly, exercising regularly, thinking good thoughts, and staying connected to others. However, we must also adapt to our changing world because dating etiquette has changed considerably over the years (more about that later).
AARP reports the most widely cited reasons seniors give for dating is to have someone to talk to and to go places with. After all, loving friendships help us thrive and none of us should be alone for long.
Dating after 60 & 70 is probably more to our benefit than we realize, even though we may feel a bit nervous at first. But think of it this way…we have more life experience now and know what to look for, both positive & negative. And as we age, we all become better judges of character, don’t we? In fact, there’s probably little in life we haven’t seen or heard before. Besides which, senior daters are fun because we have a better sense of humor.
So many people meet their mates at work, but since we may be retired, we should remain open to possibilities everywhere we go. That means always looking our best, smiling at everyone, giving good eye contact, appearing friendly, happy, confident, and open to conversation, especially when standing in line at the bank or grocery store. And by the way, the Internet is not a fad, folks. It’s definitely here to stay. Think of online dating as a numbers game. One married couple I know who met on a dating site discovered they lived just one block apart! You never know, so please keep at it and never give up!
Next issue, we’ll discuss the latest on senior dating etiquette.
