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| Single, eligible man at Assisted Living Facility? |
| On Life and Love after 50 eNewsletter September 20, 2024 Assisted Living Love By Columnist Tom Blake |
| Finding Love is Possible at Assisted Living Facilities Lillian Phillips emailed this week, “I’ve been a Champ for years and love your column. When I was 85, I had been widowed a second time and had been living with my son for three years. I needed a hearing aid and a walker to get around–not exactly dating material! “In January 2022, when I turned 86, I entered an assisted living facility in Henderson, Nevada, thinking, ‘Here is where I’ll probably die.’ “Two months later, a gentleman named Sid was invited to sit with other ladies and me in the dining room. When he walked through the dining room door, he looked confident and handsome. He had a full head of hair and didn’t use a cane or walker to get around. He was 92 and charming. I wondered, could I be Finding Love at 86. “During many meals together, we got to know each other and grew to ‘like’ each other very much. I had a terrible crush on him but kept all these feelings to myself. As I said earlier, I didn’t feel I was dating material and many single ladies were living here with their eyes on him. I didn’t know he felt the same about me. “Just before Christmas 2022, we took the same elevator to our floor after dinner and there he said, ‘Don’t you know that I’m crazy about you?’ Those words were all I needed, and I knew that I loved him deeply, and expressed this to him. He told me that the one thing that captured his heart was my smile. I have much to smile about these days. I had thought that I couldn’t fall in love again. “After several months we both realized that our life was more joyful together. “This handsome ‘silver fox’ proposed marriage. We married on June 19, 2023, at the facility. Wow, marriage at Assisted Living. “We knew the risks of marriage at our age: health, finances, family. We discussed all this and have worked it out. Whatever time each of us might have left we’ll take it together. My experience is that you are never too old to fall in love, and you can never be sure where or when love will show up. I’m 88 and Sid is 94, but our hearts are forever young. Your column inspired us.” Tom’s response to Lillian. “Your heartfelt story is a message of hope that will encourage many older singles, especially those in an assisted living facility, to never give up. We wish you well for years to come. eNewsletter Questions From time to time, I receive technical questions about the eNewsletter. By technical questions, I mean how it works and why a Champ sometimes receives two copies of the same eNewsletter in the same week. A woman Champ recently emailed “I noticed lots of duplicate reminder emails. My email address has been messed up and I just figured out how to straighten it out. I don’t always get to your article right away. Can you turn off the reminders, so I don’t get duplicates?” She was getting duplicates because her computer wasn’t functioning properly. I responded. “The Sunday duplicate emails are only sent if the Friday email was not opened by the Champ. By sending the duplicates, about 220 people open the resend. If I turn that off, I lose 220 or whatever the number is, from reading the eNewsletter. The system won’t allow me to turn off an individual address (but it will allow me to delete them). “Thank you for bringing up this issue. I appreciate your years of loyalty.” Often, when Champs stop receiving the eNewsletter, it means they have inadvertently deleted themselves. Our Constant Contact email server does not allow me to resubscribe them. To resubscribe, Champs need to go to my “FindingLoveAfter50.com” home page and resubscribe themselves. Or the cause may be that your server has blocked the eNewsletters. If that’s the case, you will need to fix that situation yourself (or, with the help of your grandkids). |
On Life and Love after 50 