My Adult Outlook

My friend Catherine looked so happy. We'd known each other since school some thirty years ago, and had been friends through thick and thin, first dates, engagement parties, weddingjitters, driving lessons, morning sickness and umpteenschool plays and sports days. She'd always beenso carefree and easy going, until I had to help her through the worst18 months of her life, when herloving husband of almost twenty years wasdiagnosed with cancer. She nursed him religiously, and I tried to be there for her as much as I could. He had passedaway three years before,and sincethen she'd beenlikea lost soul.

'Wherecan I find anotherman?' she answeredquietly, when I had dared to suggest that she might be ready for love again. 'Especially not aman like Tom, Ijust don't feel readyto letanyone else into my life'.Iletthe topic go, but hadobviously planted some seeds in her mind anda few weeks later she told me that she'd been thinking aboutjoiningone of the dating sites. Her new neighbours had met throughinternet datingsites, and werenewly married, both in theirforties, ready for a new life together.They had each been widowed a few years earlier, and now had a new found happiness together.

'He can't leave her alone' Catherine told me, almost jealously, 'he's so soft and he's always caressing her, even if you are just standing in the street. I think these dating sites might just be a good idea'.

Anyway, every time I saw Catherine over the next few weeks her demeanour seemed to change a little. A little bit of the sparkle came back into her eyes, instead of the dark circles which you can't hide from crying yourself to sleep night and night. I wondered whether she'd been on any dating sites, and she said that she had, and aftera few false starts, she was hoping to meet a man called Paul, who lived about 20 miles away from our town. He had been widowed just a couple of months after Catherine, and they both now felt that they deserved a little happiness. A few weeks later Catherine called me to invite me round for coffee. It was very strange to get a formal invitation from her, we usually just called on each other when we felt the need, anyway, as I turned into the road I could see a strange car in the driveway, a very nice blue Audi which I hadn't seen before. 'This is Paul', she beamed as I walked down the path, we met on one of those dating sites.