A Love Story for the Aged (and the ages): two divorced and discouraged octogenarians find each other through an unusual internet glitsch. A true story.

Free-spirited and agnostic, she had been divorced and actively single since her forties. A buddhist and divorced four times, he is just getting over a bankruptcy. He occupies a room in the home of his daughter, who is a naturalist specializing in wild edibles; she has two rooms in the home of her family (daughter, son-in-law, grandson, two cats, and golden retriever).

Each had subscribed to internet dating sites, she out of curiosity and boredom, he in search of a Pisces soul mate, no farther away than 25 miles. Each had given up and canceled their subscriptions.

Then, one day she gets an email from Match.com saying that they have found a match for her in the next town. When she clicks on the link, unbeknownst to her, it takes her to some other website profile. Still thinking he is a neighbor, she is intrigued by how he describes himself. And he says he plays the djembe, which she does as well. So, she sends him a Match.com response, citing things they have in common and telling him a little about herself.

The next day, she receives an email from him sent to her personal email address (something Match.com doesn’t provide). Intrigued by her response and wanting to confirm that she was an actual person and was really born in March, he used his search skills to track her down.

A few emails later, they discover that they are both Pisces, born 32 hours and 150 miles apart, she one day before him. Now they live a driveable 50 miles apart. Their likes and dislikes mirror their Pisces designation, so five days and 120 emails back and forth (escalating to bordering on lasciviousness), they decide to meet in person at a state park near where he lives. Delighted with their mutual honesty, he saves all of their emails.

How two elders, who live with their families an hour’s ride apart, and who no longer drive at night, manage to escalate their relationship into a committed one is a story for the aged (and the ages), with afternoon meetings at a mall, intimate conversations on the front seat of his old Subaru Forester, and, finally, navigating cheap motels and experimenting with her medical marijuana.

It is a story full of humor and heart as these two elders create ways to overcome the obstacles of circumstance and physical limitation to embark on the last intimate and romantic adventure of their lives.

Copyright 2003

all rights reserved

Elaine Frankonis