Dear Amy: I am responding to the letters in your column about dating protocol for older people who lose a spouse. Twenty years ago, my father died from cancer; five months later, my 35-year-old husband passed away.
I was saddened to see people applying a different standard to my mother and me. Loneliness has no age or time limit. Dating again shows no disrespect.
It was challenging for my siblings to see Mom spending time with a new gentleman, but the companionship with a peer warmed her life. My relationship with a friend deepened into a romance after five years, and we are still happily together.