Life is a crapshoot. Choosing a partner is fraught with danger since you are making a life-long commitment. When we choose someone we sometimes forget that people change. You’re not the same person you were 30 years ago. As you and your partner changes, differences may develop that neither of you is comfortable with. You can ignore them for a while, but sometimes things come to a head, and there is no good solution other than splitting up. I envy couples that have endured decades of marriage and are truly happy. My grandparents stayed together for over 50 years, so I know it’s theoretically possible.
I didn’t learn this lesson until long after the relationships ended.
I met my husband to be on a ferry boat in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba when I was significantly destabilized by the military experience in general and the GTMO experience in particular. Not a whole lot of thought went into that one. It would take pages to explain my mental state at the time.
Sounds like the plot of movie I’d like to watch.
I’m 61, AFAB and cishet. Never married, although I thought I might once. Good man, but we didn’t have as much in common as we initially thought we did. Anyway, I share a 2BR apartment with my elderly cat, and as a retiree, albeit somewhat forced 13 years ago (a story for another day) I can do what I want, when I want, and as for dating, I realized a long time ago that I was probably not supposed to be partnered.
I’m also in excellent health, which helps.
I lived mostly alone from 19 to 29 when I got married. I’m 71 now, and should I be widowed, I expect to live alone again, health permitting. I doubt I’d consider dating - I don’t want to adjust to someone else’s quirks at this stage of my life.
I don’t think I would want to live alone again, if it came to that. I’ve been with my husband almost 33 years (he’s still with us, and will probably outlast me, but we’re talking hypothetical). Living alone as an old person is kind of scary to me. I don’t know what I would do if my husband pre-deceased me, and I was still active and healthy. I don’t want to live in any kind of retirement community. Maybe try some kind of roommate situation, just for companionship, or even some kind of group home, as long as it’s not all old people. Maybe move to a different town and try to re-invent myself as a more social person. I don’t think I am likely to be faced with this situation though.
I don’t think I would do well alone. While I don’t socialize much (at all, really) with the people here, not having my wife would be intolerable. I’ve wondered what the hell I would do if she dies before me, but I guess like everyone else who is in that situation, you just get by. Scary, really.
I’m in my mid fifties, holy shit, how did that happen, and have been living alone for 20+ years. I’m fine with it. I do want to get a dog, my last guy passed a couple of years ago.
I didn’t live alone til 6 years ago; parents, husband, child, roomie.
Almost 65.
I would rather be married or have a roomate.
58.5 and never married. I’m OK being alone. I have a large family and enjoy being with them, but I also like coming home.
Right now I am unemployed so don’t even have socialization at work, but most weeks I play board games at least two nights. Once at someone’s home (3-5 people total) and a game night I co-organize (varies from 4 to 16 people – most nights 8-12). This enough socialization for me.
There is a local outdoors group that I used to do a fair amount with, but they are a lot less active now. Soon the Tuesday morning paddles will start which I never did while employed (many members are retired) – maybe I will join those (I am still looking for a job, but could probably retire if I had to – well at least before my 401k became a 40-none-k)
Brian
classic introvert
I’m 66, was happily married until widowed ~ 4 years ago then had a 2-year unhappy rebound marriage.
I can say that being happily married beats being single which massively beats being unhappily married.
I do enjoy my singleness and my freedom and have no trouble filling my days alone. I have no expectation of remarrying; not gonna happen. Cohabiting isn’t off the table, but it seems unlikely. But …
A day without some female companionship and a day without sex are both utterly barren wastelands compared to days with those things. Kinda like the old saw about the best day working being worse than the worst day fishing. Ideally I’d have enough nearby GFs that I could readily spend time with somebody every day, but not overburden any one of them. I’m still working that part out.
Right now I have one GF and her max practical time commitment is less than my minimum acceptable steady-state time commitment. We do great together except for that disconnect. Which we’ll resolve one way or the other; she’s trying to clear some other crap out of her life to add more room for me/us, but it’s a legitimately large job and may take longer than we can stand. My prior GF & I had the same issue and eventually sadly, not angrily, went our separate ways over it.
I need to introduce those two to each other & see what happens. Just kidding 
I salute your libido but wow…that’s a lot. Not sure I was that busy on my best weeks when in my 20s!
I will say, if you get less sex the drive to want/need it diminishes over time. I certainly still have a healthy libido and if a woman I liked invited me back to her place chances are excellent I’d say yes. But if it didn’t happen I wouldn’t be too fussed about it either.
You can always take care of yourself and, while nowhere near as good as being with a partner, it can help bridge those gaps.
My brother is 68 and twice divorced. He says that he likes living alone. Visiting with his kids and grandkids, taking his boat out, and hanging out with friends seems to keep him busy enough.
Post content and user name had me wondering. 
I’m 73 and live alone. I have no family – no kids, siblings, or cousins.
I enjoy the freedom, privacy, and solitude, but I worry about the future. My elderly parents could not have gotten by without my help. Who will help me if I need it?
I think you need to start making plans for assisted living. Doubtless you are not keen on that solution but I am not sure there is another one.
Maybe if you can afford for a nurse to visit daily you could keep living alone.
Unlike almost all of you, I’ve lived alone ever since I got out of college (1971) and moved out of the family home, in a series of apartments until I bought my condo in 1996. I’ve had some romantic escapades but never came close to marrying. Over the years I’ve owned three horses and a succession of cats. And books. Lots and lots of books.
I gave up being interested in dating sometime in my early 40s and haven’t missed it. I have a small circle of friends but don’t socialize much. I’ve worked at home for decades.
And I love it. I have my home set up just the way I want it, I don’t have to work around another person’s habits and wants, I get enough social interaction to meet the needs of the hermit persona I accept is mine, and all in all I’m living my best life. At this point I would find it overwhelming to have to live with another person.
I realize for a lot of people my life would seem barren but it works for me.
I might be more than a little jealous of that life. I have the cats and the horse, but not the solitude.
I’m 70+, living with currently 4 cats and a dog but no humans, and am good with that. I’ve lived alone for large chunks of my life and am used to it; though I’ve sometimes lived with other people, mostly but not always platonically. Sometimes I was good with that and sometimes I wasn’t – depended on the people. I’d a whole lot rather live alone than with the wrong person/people.
My mother outlived my father by 20 years, lived alone during that time, and showed no signs whatsoever of wanting either to remarry or to take a less formal partner. Her father remarried in his late 80’s while in an assisted living home (his second wife lived there too, I think they met there.) People vary.
Yeah, me too. Mid-40’s maybe.
All three horses are gone now (last one I had for 20 years, said goodbye two years ago when he was 30) and I mostly boarded them out, with a stretch of a decade or more of rough boarding. Had over 20 cats over the half century or so of being on my own. It suits me.