When I was young, I was a real beauty and a caravan of girls chased me. Thanks to this I married a very beautiful and intelligent woman, and we had wonderful children. If not for the disease, I would have spent all my life with my first and only wife, but she left me too soon. And in my old age I always want to have another person by my side, this way it is easier to live financially, and there is no oppressive feeling of loneliness.
Since fifty-seven I actively began to look for a new love – I put my children on their feet, and it is possible to deal with their personal life. All tried to get acquainted with someone in the park, or at work, or intentionally went to a cafe, looking for suitable women. I can imagine how suspicious I looked to some of them… Meanwhile, my neighbor upstairs kept reaching out to me. She was three years older than me, also a widow, not very beautiful, without children, but with an apartment. She tried to take care of me, always gave me food and came to visit me uninvited. I did not like her at all, I did not pay any attention to her and tried to make it clear that I did not care about her.
In the summer of fifty-nine years I went with my children and grandchildren to the sea. There was almost nothing left of my former beauty, and when from the sea I was called “Grandpa!” women were even more likely to lose interest in me. I had already read many love stories about old men like me finding a second love and living happily for years in a new marriage, and only I, it seemed, had no luck.
When I returned home, my neighbor was already waiting for me with hot pies. She had been taking care of me for a couple of years, and I kept rejecting her, not accepting her feelings. But now I think I’m ready to go out with her, since no one else is paying attention. It’s better than being all alone, right? She can cook and do household chores, and I just need someone like that. I don’t want to be alone for the next ten or twenty years.
