How a 44-year-old woman made her last attempt to get pregnant on her own

I was 44 that summer three years ago, the crossroads of midlife, at which point I finally decided after much trepidation that I would try to have a child on my own. I would be a single mother by choice, but it really wasn’t a choice at all. It was a consolation after failed love and heartbreak, it was the kiss at 11:59 on New Year’s Eve, it was the last chance I had at having a baby of my own.