Love: as King Charles said, what is love?

If you have great love, you feel happy, and uplifted, enjoying life more because you have a love.

I have had three main loves in my life. My first husband, David, died in a car accident in 1973, when I was 27. My second husband, Bill, died from cancer in 2018.

At that time I went on a pilgrimage on the Camino, which I wrote about (and was published in The Lake Report: “Buen Camino: Memories from a deeply personal pilgrimage,” Nov. 17, 2022).

My third love, Hal, has been a great blessing to me.

He is optimistic, fun to be with, interested in many things, and he makes me happy.

We go on cruises, play euchre weekly, have some great friends, enjoy our families, and make an effort to stay healthy with diet, exercise and involvement with others.

We found each other through Match, an online dating website.

We both hit “Like” even though I said I’d not go out with a divorced person, and he said he wouldn’t date any more than 10 kilometres away – I was 50 kilometres away.

We both just liked each other and started to date.

I knew I didn’t want to be alone. I was a two-time widow and Hal was a two-time divorcee, so we met up and just clicked.

He picked me up at my car service dealer and took me to his place against my daughter’s wishes as she said, “Mom, you don’t know this guy.”

But it all worked out: he fixed me chicken wings, which I didn’t like, and when COVID hit, he came to my place and said, “Can I move in?”

Thanks to COVID, we joined forces and eventually bought a townhouse together in St. Davids and well, that was five years ago.

We are in love and love our life together.