Dear Guest,

The only advice I'll give you is to keep your eyes open. When I was forty I met the love of my life (up to that point). She was twenty seven and we fell madly in love. Shortly into our relationship we discovered that we had very different ideas about how our futures would go. She was determined to have a big family and that was not something I wanted at all. We agreed, consequently, that ours would not be a long affair and reassured each other that we would always love each other no matter how it ended. Well, the longer we stayed together the closer we became and we kept postponing the inevitable. After four years, the last two of which were filled with painful breakups that never took and at the last unsucessful attempts to salvage our deep friendship, we broke it off completely. It launched me into a depression that took me more than a year to emerge from. I found out, subsequently, that she had had a similar experience.

Last year we resumed our friendship via snail mail (she moved to another state)and I was genuinely happy to learn that she had started the family that she always wanted and was (and is) doing great. As for me, I have found my dear one who is, not necessarily by design, exactly my age.

Take what you will from this tale Guest, but I have to agree with Chet "...only you know what is right."

Best Wishes, Frankie