Mary, 64, and Stephen Bullock, 66, graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, a year apart, married different people, moved to different states and saw each other at the occasional class reunion.
Fast forward 40 years. Divorced from his second wife, Stephen moved back to Rocky Mount and soon began dating Mary and a year later, they married.
Finding love later in life is becoming increasingly common as more of today’s midlife and older people show a tendency to date and marry, said Linda Fisher, research director with AARP in Washington, DC.
“I think you see a very different mindset when you are looking at people who are in midlife and older. It’s a stage when you’ve been through a lot of things, and you’ve developed a lot of confidence in your own judgment that you may not have had when you were younger,” Fisher said.
Having been married previously, the Bullocks made sure everything with their past was finished before they started their future. Older couples are usually past the pressures younger couples face when trying to figure themselves out as well as their mates, Fisher said. “They’ve had enough experience to feel a little bit more confident in who they are and probably not to feel they have to remake themselves to satisfy someone else.”
From a story by Laura McFarland in the Rocky Mount Telegram, Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
