Say Yes!

What happens when, long-partnered and no longer youthful, we are suddenly left alone and uncoupled? Here is a book that embraces the will, the spirit of such a challenge. Here are stories of how an older man or woman may avoid a barren middle age. Of how to imbue our later years with heft, meaning and delight, self-renewal thick with surprise and discovery. Here are concerns that grievously affect our burgeoning aging community as most of us over 70 now live alone, matters that resonate as well for retired couples. Say Yes! is neither guide nor manual. Rather, it is the narrator's intimate recountings of loss and aloneness. But also possibilities for a thrilling, reconfigured reality, an abundance of bountiful awakenings for wishful readers who may become heartened and emboldened. Do we latch on? Or do we accept a conventional stasis, a sedate conformity. A digging in from fear of the untried. The author is 60 when her husband of 36 years dies of pancreatic cancer. Bereft, an opportunity arises. She takes an impulsive trip to Florence, Italy. From this, her life catapults beyond the mundane as she travels by herself to other European cities, writes a book, moves to New York. Enriched by strangers, she finds celebration in being alone, enters into passions old and new with verve and grit. Standing firm is her staunch refusal to accept a life of marking time devoid of vigorous well-being. Why move beyond what comfortably suits? To vanquish doubt, dread, despair. To savor the largesse of our world in adventurous new ways. How does one begin? Say Yes!