This is weird and wonderful and the same time. My Mom is getting married  in December, just one year after my Dad, and her husband of 52 years, died.  I  guess I should be glad that she is reading love letters and emails instead the obituary column but it’s still a little strange. Mom, an iron lady who raised 7 children born within 9 years, was a farmer’s wife and a strict mother, has turned into a giddy love-sick teenager. It’s a facet of her I have never witnessed.  She makes me feel old.

I’m dating too, after my divorce, but I’m a lot more cautious. She feels time passing, and wants to grab the time she has left. She says that her years with Dad and raising us were her life’s meal – solid and fulfilling, but this romance is her dessert – the sweet end, the reward.

The part that’s a little embarrassing is when she talk about her desire – how she can’t wait to get married so she can have a “full relationship” with Geert.  They are both so old they can’t drive at night, so when they visit late, they have to sleep at each others houses.  Mom says she can’t wait to sleep in his room instead of the guest room.  In fact, this is the reason they are getting married – so they can have sex. (They are both good Catholics, and there is no point throwing that away this late in the game.)

I tell this story to all my friends in their 50′s who wonder if they are “too old” to date. I know my Mom was not out looking, but love found her, and now she’s not old at all – she’s a young girl agian.  It is weird and wonderful.

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