Navigating life single handed

I think to some extent one gets used to it. My mother was married at 19,  divorced at 21 (a disastrous war time marriage) then a
married my dad when she was about 28. In the intervening years she became a speech therapist, ie she had a profession, which gave her confidence and independence probably more than if she’d been a married house wife in the interim.

She was happily married for 30 years or so until my dad died when she was about 57. She is now 96 and thus has been single for 39 years. We encouraged her to get a boyfriend but she wasn’t really interested and much prefers living on her own. She does have a huge circle of friends and a very active social life though, plus a couple of lovely kids. Well, one of them is lovely anyway.

So I think the point is that if you are at ease with yourself and have friends etc, you can still be happy living alone - I think you get used to it.

My sister is single, now aged 66. She has never married and has only had a few weird boyfriends that didn’t last and always turned out to be nutters. She is now severely disabled with a degenerative condition that means these days she can’t really walk at all, and she has no strength at all in her limbs. Her knees routinely and spontaneously dislocate. Zero strength in her hands and fingers.Mostly wheelchair bound. But she is still working as a barrister, still driving with hand controls. But her life is very difficult on a practical level. Unfortunately she is her own worst enemy, being much better at putting other people’s backs up than I am! Such a shame, her life must be really difficult. But she’s lived alone for so long that no-one else could stand to live with her and vice versa. She would have like to shack up with someone but the bottom line is she’s too obnoxious.

Anyway I suspect that the preponderance of single people on here is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Singletons are surely more likely to take to the internet to chat to virtual friends, than folk whose daily lives are busy keeping the spouse happy, looking after the kids etc.

I always liked Joey's line from an episode of Friends when he said he needed to live alone to have room for his thoughts ... later however, having tried it he discovered ...

"Turns out I don't have that many thoughts after all."

Some interesting posts thank you ... I tend to agree with thebfg in that we have the choice to enjoy a period alone knowing it is not the default setting.

JohnV is currently in deep flood water ... when stuff goes wrong like that is when someone to lean on, if only emotionally is important I feel ... not impossible alone clearly, but perhaps more comfortable to share ?

Rog

I quite enjoy being on my own and enjoy my own company. Id rather have no relationship than a bad one, you meet so many people trapped for various reasons in relationships that are unhealthy. The beauty of being on the water is if you want company you can find it, but if you want to be alone you can find that as well. Its not like being stuck in a house on your own.

I was single until I was 35, most of my relatives had written me off as too ambitious to want a long term life partner.
Once I’d found the right one I was happy to share my life.
I do relish my own company, as does my husband and spookily my daughter, who often comes home and informs me she is going to her room because she has had enough of other people! She and I are both only children and Wayne has a brother 11 years older than him so was brought up as a virtual only child. I wonder if this has anything to do with it?

Erm point of order, you live with Shania!