My Grandma, after marrying her highschool sweetheart at the age of 17 (he was a few years older), lost her husband in her twenties and was left with 4 kids.
She ended up marrying a man 30 years her elder. They lived many happy years together. At the time she faced a lot of backlash for it and even got disowned by some family members. She was the talk of the town- most everyone thought she was a gold digger, but she really did love him and they shared a great deal of things in common.
3 years after my grandma’s first husband died, she came to know my grandpa. He and his wife lived next door. About a year after his wife died of cancer, my grandpa had seen her struggling to fix something on her house so being a good neighbor, he came over to help his widowed neighbor accomplish a task that she was really missing her husband for. She did not have any money to offer him so she invited him over for Sunday dinner. From then on he was always there to fix things for her and she always invited him to Sunday dinner. They got to know each other during that time and she grew to love him for his kindness toward her and for the stability he offered her and her children in her vulnerable state. He grew to love her for her gentle kindness and hospitality toward him during such a lonely time so they married.
After many good years he died. My poor grandma has been alone for a little over 20 years now. My grandma and I are very close. We confide in each other often. She has told me that despite the bitter sting of loneliness, she wouldn’t have done it differently. She loved both of her husbands very much, in different ways.
Her story is different, obviously. She married young to a young husband before marrying a man with a large age gap. I’m just relating the story to MichaelKnoxville because you never know what might come along even if you consider yourself over the hill!