October 15, 2019 —By Frances Kolarek —
There is little to be added to Roger Angell’s celebration of his 93 years in the February New Yorker. “Getting old is the second-biggest surprise of my life,” he writes, “but the first, by a mile, is our unceasing need for deep attachment and intimate love.” And, he adds, ”these feeling in old folks are widely treated like a raunchy secret …. Take it from us, who know about the emptiness of loss, and are still cruising along here feeling lucky and not yet entirely alone,” he adds.
E.B. White, author of Charlotte’s Web and several thousand other beautifully crafted words, once wrote from his farm in Maine: “The master carpenter got married at the age of 93. He met his bride at the nursing home where they had both gone to die. And such is the power of love they both sprang from the home and are happily settled in Penobscot, keeping house.”
So much for the myth that there’s no sex after ___. Fill in the blank yourself. Sex in old age is a fact of life, Boomers.
My Collington friends and neighbors fall in love in their 80s, and enjoy sex. And while I cannot testify to the latter statement, I feel secure in making it. Many enjoy enduring relationships outside of marriage so as not to upset financial apple carts.
Medical authorities who study the effects of sexual intercourse assure us that it offers only benefits. The danger of stroke during sex is minimal, they say, and it’s good for your heart. Yes. Good for your heart physically and emotionally.