Older women (perhaps over 65), who are single either because they never married or because they are widows or divorced enjoy living by themselves. They find positives in being alone more than they miss having a partner. There is a difference in the way men and women approach their late sixties when it comes to living alone or with a mate. Women are used to taking care of themselves. They even enjoy it. Think about how pleasant it can be for a woman to just feed herself, not have to add salt or leave out the olives or some such direction. When we are raising children and living with a husband or partner we must always make this sort of small concession. This takes a certain amount of mental energy and over time exacts a toll. Alone a woman can sleep when she wishes and get up when she wishes (excluding demands of work) rather than constantly adjusting to another's schedule.
When a man pairs up, the woman is generally the one who must rearrange her life to suit him. This is not a paternalistic 20th Century thing. It may even be genetic. It just seems to happen even in our very modern two breadwinner homes.
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Great blog, Bonnie. Enjoying your writing. At 52 I am AMAZED at happy I am single ... for the reasons you say here. I don't eeeeeever want to adjust my life to accommodate another's, or, as I see it, "give up me" again. I've been married a couple of times. And, speaking of ovaries, I think it has a lot to do with them darlings. Mine are no longer functioning as my "little brain" as we joke about men who think with their penis. Twenty years ago my hormones wanted me to be paired -- it is that reproductive drive-thing, I think, even when we don't want more chillins.
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