At 69, I Went on Vacation Alone and Fell in Love With a 72-Year-Old Man. For Seven Days, I Felt Like the Happiest Woman in the World. But on Our Final Evening, I Overheard a Woman Saying, “You Can’t Keep Deceiving Her. She’s Going Home Tomorrow, and You Still Don’t Know How You’re Going to Get Rid of Her.”

“You’d better not, because I’m not planning to run away anymore either.”

We began seeing each other regularly.

Sometimes I traveled to Boston, and sometimes he came to visit me.

And every time, we got to know each other a little better.

Six months later, we returned to Madeira.

At the same restaurant, David took my hand.

“You know, Mary, for a long time I believed that the only way to remain faithful to Nancy was to never love anyone else.”

I listened quietly.

“But one day Sarah told me, ‘Dad, Mom loved you so much that she would never have wanted her memory to become the reason for your loneliness.’”

My eyes filled with tears.

David continued.

“I can’t promise that we’ll be together forever. But I can promise that from now on, I won’t let the fears of my past destroy our present.”