Finding love again at any age
“Old love is different,” writes author Eve Pell. “In our 70s and 80s, we had been through enough of life’s ups and downs to know who we were, and we had learned to compromise. We knew something about death because we had seen loved ones die. The finish line was drawing closer. Why not have one last blossoming of the heart?”
Pell penned her love story for the New York Times’ famed “Modern Love” column, recalling her romance with Sam Hirabayashi, whom she met in her running club when she was 68 years old. Sam was 78. After plotting with a friend to make sure they both showed up at the same movie night, Pell began what she calls “the sweetest romance.” Pell says, “We just had a wonderful time together.”
An overwhelming response to the column made Pell realize she wasn’t the only one with a late-in-life love story. Hundreds and hundreds of replies boosted the piece to the eighth most popular “Modern Love” essay of all time.
“I saw from the hundreds of responses that I got from the column there were other people who were in a situation of falling in love when they were old,” Pell says. “So I knew I was part of a phenomenon.”
Pell’s new book, “Love, Again,” grew out of the column’s response. Part memoir, it recalls her own love story while speaking with others about their own later-in-life romances, showing that everyone has something to learn from unexpected romance.
“Sam and I said to each other again and again, ‘We are so lucky.’” Pell says. “And many of the people I talked to felt exactly the same way. "We are so lucky."
Watch as Pell talks about her own love story and why it’s never too late to experience a life-changing kind of love.
