My romantic retirement: Mandy spent 40 years searching for her ideal partner - dating exciting, difficult and damaged men. Now, aged 64, she's had an epiphany..
. that she's MUCH happier on her own By Mandy Appleyard Published: 02:24, 4 June 2024 | Updated: 02:24, 4 June 2024 e-mail View comments A good friend and I were at the village pub one night last week celebrating my 64th birthday. We found ourselves surrounded by several people in couples, all bored, sitting in stony silence, some scrolling on their phone, none of them with anything much to say to each other.
By contrast, my friend Pete and I never stopped talking and laughing as we caught up on the minutiae of each other's lives. We took the scenic route home in his car as the light faded over the North Yorkshire Moors. It was a happy evening, and one which reminded me of how much I am grateful for in my life.
It has taken decades of heartbreaks, highs and lows for me to accept that I am happier and live a much better and richer life on my own, rather than in a romantic relationship. It seems I may be in good company, given data from investment bank Morgan Stanley which predicts 45 per cent of women will be single and childless by 2030. If increasing numbers of women are choosing to live their lives without husbands and children, it's clearly because more and more of them see it as a preferred way of being.
Mandy Applewood, 64, says it has taken highs and lows for her to accept that she is happier and lives a much bet.
