Budding Romance for Late Bloomers
Women's first marriages over 40, 50, 60
by
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In the spring of 1995, I was working in a challenging job working for the President and CEO of a high-technology firm, had many close friends, was financially secure, and I led a physically active and healthy lifestyle. In other words, I was happy and content with myself and with my life. It was at this time I decided to take a vacation. A friend’s photographs convinced me that Cabo San Lucas was the place to vacation. It wasn't until my friend, Julie, and I were engulfed in clouds, 30,000 feet up and well on our way to our vacation destination that I recalled what Gloria Brough, a Vancouver psychic, saw in my future. She had predicted the previous year, "It looks like you will be taking a trip south - it looks like Mexico." At the time, my focus was on Hawaii. She went on to say, "It will be the right time and the right place." (I didn't know what she meant by this, but I was about to find out.) She saw me getting married in a beautiful garden in the presence of 100 guests. My husband would have two, fully-grown sons, and she saw me living in a warm climate, in the United States. After my reading that day, when I got up to leave Gloria said, "You know, I can marry you: I'm also an ordained Minister." I laughed it off with, "I'll keep that in mind." I never believed for a minute that I would be calling her the very next year asking her to perform our marriage ceremony. Our first day in Cabo San Lucas was spent shopping and familiarizing ourselves with our surroundings near the Plaza Las Glorias Hotel. Late afternoon, we ended up at Salsitas, an outside cafe hugging the marina, near the town center. As we were about to sit down at a table, the most amazing thing happened. I was about to say, “Let’s sit over there”, pointing to a table on the opposite side of the café, when a loud voice inside my head shouted, “Just sit down.” So I did. How could I argue? As I gazed at the activity in the harbor, Julie chatted to the people seated at the next table. When I turned to see who she was talking to, my eyes came to rest on an extremely attractive man. He was wearing a panama hat, sunglasses and the sexiest smile you could imagine. My heart reacted immediately, like an electric shock. He introduced himself as David, and then introduced his son and step-son. They were on a week's vacation from Tacoma, Washington. We talked easily for awhile, and then I found myself eagerly agreeing to join him on the golf course the next day. After golf, I accepted his invitation to lunch at Las Palmilla, an ultra lush resort filled with a romantic ambiance. The very next day, David told his brother that, “I think I have met “the one.” This was the beginning of our incredible love story. On a beautiful summer night in June, in a courtyard setting at Il Giardino restaurant in Vancouver, David proposed. Later that fall, while vacationing in Palm Desert, California, we got engaged. You might say, “A funny thing happened on the way to the health food store.” A big celebration was going on at Hatfield Jewelers at the Shopping Mall. We stopped to see what was going on, and the next thing I knew I was trying on rings, drinking champagne and saying, “yes.” We chose the following June for a romantic, outdoor wedding against a backdrop of colorful blooms at Peace Arch Park located at the Canadian/USA border crossing, in the presence of 100 guests. It was by far the most exciting day of my life. A few years ago you couldn't have convinced me that this day would have become a reality. And, to marry a man I truly loved, and who loved me back, was inconceivable. It proved one thing. Dreams do come true - and miracles do happen. They don't always happen to someone else, as I had previously believed.
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About the Book
This book is a shining light to all women who have loved, who have lost, and who have given up on ever finding love again. The author recounts her journey to love and marriage at age fifty-three—along with other women over forty, fifty, and sixty, who candidly share their secrets of letting go of their safely guarded independence to take another chance on love; the barriers they overcame; the circumstances that prevailed and their willingness to adapt; new perceptions and attitudes adopted; and fate, which intervened, turning their dreams into realities. Fox has gleaned snippets of information from experts in the field of relationships, capturing the essence of love’s most important lessons. We know that we cannot change our past, but what about our future? The stories contained herein will prove that love can happen when we have that burning desire to persist and make it happen and, in some cases, when we completely let go and focus on our passion, determining what it is we really want and need to make us happy. The best is yet to come!
About the Author
Maureen Candace Fox, an Executive Assistant to high profile executives in the latter part of her career in Canada, turned aspiring writer... Later on, while employed with the City of Palm Springs, she contributed to its monthly newsletter as a feature writer of employees’ achievements. This is Maureen’s first book. Maureen met her husband, David, at age fifty-two, while vacationing in Cabo San Lucas. They married a year later, settling in Tacoma. She thought of herself as an anomaly, this being her first marriage, even though she had many single friends who had never been married. Her friends’ ecstatic reaction to her news prompted her to start gathering similar stories, writing this book with the intention of inspiring other women not to give up their dreams of marriage, no matter what age. She dispels the myth that women over forty have a better chance of getting captured by aliens than getting married. After almost ten years of wedded bliss, Maureen and David made the painful decision to go their separate ways. “There’s the life you planned, then there’s what comes next” became her mantra. Change begets change; new doors opened and others closed. Maureen retired so she could reconnect with family and friends in Vancouver, British Columbia, during the summer months and to focus more on her creative side, such as painting and writing during her time spent in the desert. By writing this book, she hopes to reach those women who still have visions of becoming “Mrs.” She believes, “It’s not our age that stops us, it’s ‘attitude.’” After all, age is only important if you are discussing good wine or well-aged cheese.