In generations past, she says, older adults who were widowed were expected not to pursue a romantic relationship at all, but rather jump right into the role of grandparenting. Later-in-life romance, let alone destination weddings, weren't the norm even a few decades ago, says Fisher. Between them, the couple have five children, 12 grandchildren and five great-grandkids, with another on the way. The exact date is a secret, Julien says, to deter would-be wedding crashers from showing up on their special day. They aren't married yet, but the pair are set to tie the knot with a private ceremony in Costa Rica in the coming weeks. She says she was about to give up on finding love when Stainer contacted her through the dating website Plenty of Fish in 2016. "He figured he would never get married again, and I figured I would never get married again,” says Julien, whose first marriage had ended in divorce after 18 years. That was certainly the case for Diane Julien, 72, and Ron Stainer, 81, of Minnesota. That insight is key to what biological anthropologist and self-help author Helen Fisher, a senior research fellow at the Kinsey Institute, says is one of the central upsides of finding love later in life: Not only do older adults know what they want, they're also less likely than younger counterparts to compromise on what's most important to them.Īnd with millions of older adults entering the dating scene, experts say that more older adults than ever before are experiencing their own happily-ever-afters, decades beyond the median age of first marriage (30 for men and 28 for women in 2018, according to the U.S. There have also been some hiccups when it comes to how their grown children reacted to the news.īut overall, they say, their relationship is a new beginning - and one that probably wouldn't have worked out if they had met 25 years ago. Both had lost spouses to cancer in recent years, so working through grief was part of the package. By that October, they were married, and Jim, now 76, moved into Sandy's home in Frankfort, Illinois, where she has lived since 1974.īut the process wasn't seamless. It was clear to both they shared something special. After communicating through emails and phone calls in early 2018, the couple decided to meet in person.
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