Re: Are we ever too old to fall in love?
Hi WB, Hi everyone.
Oh definitely! I have told posters on here a little while ago about the story of my younger brother.
He and my SIL fell in love at school. she aged 13 and he aged 14. They married at ages 16 & 17 with the blessing of both parents because their first child was on the way (naughty things) but had a wonderful marriage with two children. They ran their own successful business together and were inseparable. Sadly, he lost his only love at the age of 63 from Cancer. After his loss, the mere thought of being with someone else was the furthest thing from his mind.even though at 64, he was, and still is a hansome devil who looks 10 years younger, and if I say so myself being biased, a good catch for any woman.
I think he was so lost he tried to occupy his time by buying boys toys such as a new sports car, built himself a new games-room, and generally wasting money trying to keep himself occupied. I really felt for him as he had come from a very large family straight into his own family. And with his two children grown with their own families, this was the first time in his life he was alone. Although he has more than 67 other family members living locally around him, nothing seemed to count once she had gone.
We just prayed that his grief would subside a little as time went on.
My late SIL was a very beautiful woman, both in looks but especially in personality. The sort of woman that always made a man feel a man. He missed her so much. He was inconsolable for the first two years and became very withdrawn. Even more so because he no longer had his business to keep him occupied as they had retired the some years before he lost her So it was a very difficult time for him. Thank goodness he kept himself occupied some of the time walking his two English Mastiffs and taking good care of my late SIL’s three little Shih Tzu’s.
Then, as some of you know, he visited me one day when I was on Skype talking to my Russian pen-pal, If I was to describe her I would say she is a very attractive, articulate widowed mother of two grown children. She is a music teacher and choir leader at one of the conservatories and is well-travelled, attending concerts throughout Europe.
Anyhow, he popped in to see me as we were skyping. He was peering over my shoulder, looking at her as I was trying to say goodbye so I thought it only polite that I introduce them to each other.
That was it! The crafty beggar made sure he was here everytime we skyped, and slowly but surely he took over the conversation, so much so, they even started to skype each other!
Now, almost two years later, they are engaged, she is applying to become a British citizen, they have travelled all over Europe together, off to Bermuda in November and I have never seen him so happy. (even though I’ve lost my pen-pal!)
I have to say of course, when the family first heard of the romance, one can imagine the thoughts going through their minds! Especially his two children. It took quite a while for both he and myself to convince them that she was not what they imagined (after his money) and in no way would I be silly enough to have someone of low repute as my pen-pal!!
I think they were relieved to learn that she is in fact, quite well-off in her own right, was married to a wealthy businessman for 30 years, owns her own apartment in St Petersburg, as well as owning a property business run by her son, but you know what it is like? If she had been British it wouldn’t have mattered so much, but they were highly suspicious at first because she hailed from Russia!!
It took about 3 visits here for his two children to really get to know her, now they think the world of her, they adored their mum but his fiancee has made my brother very happy again and that is enough for them. They are good kids, have their own families and all they ever wanted was to see him happy again. He has also met her children twice,(who were equally just as anxious about their mum and her relationship with him), but now thankfully, both families are content and reassured that their relationship is genuine.
I have to be honest and say that I never thought he would find love again. As far as he was concerned, no-one would ever replace my SIL. So it was definitely a case of “never say never” where love is concerned!
Even stranger, all the other family members cannot get over how similar she is to my late SIL, both in looks, height, slender figure, same shoulder length dark hair, even her quiet demeanor. I laughed when he told me that it has taken several visits by her to convince her that she did not have to be up at 7 am every morning to start cleaning the house, cleaning the outside windows, and washing his clothes!! (that, apparently is the way in Russia, the men do nothing around the house, the women do everything!) He says that she is slowly learning to relax to the British way of life!
Love is definitely in the air!
T