Ronda

I am getting married in September. I will be 53 when we marry. It is going to be a small (35) family wedding. I am torn about whether or not to have my father walk me down the aisle. At my age I don’t think it is necessary and I don’t want my dad to have to dress up or rent a tux or anything like that. My first instinct is to just walk down the aisle by myself but my Dad is 85 and I wonder if I will regret not having him walk me down the aisle. Any advice is appreciated.

My boyfriend James. We met through an online dating site. He is the sweetest man I have ever been with. I was widowed ten years ago and only started dating again last year. I am beyond happy.

Thank you for all the good advice. I did share with new guy tonight that I am scared to be in a relationship because of loosing my husband. He was very understanding and told me he isn’t going anywhere unless I tell him to leave. Funny thing is that years and years ago when I was starting my relationship with DH and got cold feet he told me the exact same thing.

I have started dating one man exclusively. The first one since my husband passed away. I am starting to have feelings for him. I am scared to death. How do you get over being scared to love someone again when you know how devastating it is to lose them? I don't want to hold back my feelings for this man but it is so hard already to just give in to them and let whatever is going to happen happen. Any advice on what has helped any of you would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much everybody for sharing your experiences with me. I appreciate all the help I can get. Dating in your 50's is a lot different than when I was dating in my 20's, although I still feel as geeky and shy on the first dates....LOL.

I am supposed to be going out with a widower I meet through online dating. I am kind of concerned since he says his wife has only been gone for 10 months. Have any of you dated a widower that was this newly widowed or did any of you men start dating that early? Will I be able to tell if it is too soon for him to be dating? What signs should I look for? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

So, "it" happened. I was widowed 9 years ago and just started dating again two months ago. My DH was the only man up until now that I had made love with. I could not have found a better man for my second lover. He was very respectful and attentive. I have no regrets and he made me feel like a desirable, beautiful woman again. I hope everyone is as lucky as I was.

Thank you so much everyone. I am currently seeing a very nice man. Not sure if he is the "one", but I am enjoying spending time with him.

Thank you everyone for your understanding and advice.

Went on two dates with a man I met online, talked and texted with him for two weeks and first two dates went well. I showed up at his place today to go on third date and he had been drinking and was acting like a completely different person than the one I liked. I am so upset. This is the first man that I have tried to date since loosing my husband nine years ago. Just wondering if anyone had any luck finding someone normal through online dating.

I have not been to a wedding since DH died 8 years ago. I will attend the first one at the end of this month when our daughter gets married. To say "emotions are running high" would be an understatement. I just hope I can hold it together and she can too. The lack of his presence will definitely be felt. Weddings are hard and I am glad I have been able to avoid it up until now. Good luck with yours.

I just cut mine all up this past weekend. My daughter is getting married at the end of September. The dress was a very inexpensive dress and is now horribly out of style. I knew there was no way she would want to wear it. I am using the lace from it to make her bridal garters. At least she will be wearing a little bit of it. I would not make a decision to get rid of your dress until you can do it for the right reasons and only you can decide what those are. I am still holding onto a bunch of my husbands old shirts thinking I will make memory quilts for the kids, who are now adults, out of them. It has been eight years. It will probably never happen, but I'm not ready to give up on the idea of it yet.