Echo Woman
| JOIN THE DEBATE | |  | | | | | NEWS | | | | | | WEST HAM | | | | SOUTHEND UNITED | | |
|
|
|
After my divorce I swore off men...then I met Dennis
 |
| Happy endings - 30 years after a divorce Gloria met the man of her dreams |
I was divorced from my first husband and I'd given up on all men. I thought I'd care for just my mum and dad because I was living in their place in Hadleigh.
My poor mum had Septicaemia, she wouldn't eat and she had very bad agrophobia, she didn't go out and life was so distressing for her. I did all I possibly could to help her, in the years to come you think was it enough?' but my mum always used to say I was her ray of sunlight.
My mum died and after that my dad suffered a horrendous stroke. I cared for him for eight years and after that he died.
I was at the end of my tether. I worked at the Salvation Army charity shop, I still work there, and one afternoon I was very low and I thought blow it I thought I could just end it all.
All of a sudden the door of the charity shop opened and I knew instantly my heart was lost. He felt the same way evidently and we started dating. At the end of it he asked me to marry him and we did on June 3. We have been married five years. That was the day that changed my life.
When I divorced I was 32 and I never looked at another man till Dennis. I was 62 when I met him and he changed everything completely. I thought what a dear, sweet man I'd like to care for him - nothing like feeling the hots for him - I wanted to look after him.
Mind you he's nice looking - 6ft 5ins, nice blonde hair and lovely blue eyes, it doesn't matter what he eats he stays slim, he's just gorgeous.
The tables have turned now, he's the one who cares for me, he does my cooking he's the sail beneath my arms.
We got married at the registry office in Southend. It was a quiet do because deep down Dennis is that little bit shy. After, we had the reception back here, it wasn't like my first wedding where I had a wedding dress and a beautiful coronet - but that just didn't work.
I thought I couldn't fall in love again, how wrong I was.
What I say to ladies who come in the shop is you can find love anywhere but the secret is you mustn't look for it. You can go out all dolled up and sit there and not meet anybody but you can go to the supermarket, turn a corner, bump into somebody and woops - it's as simple as that. You never know what's round the next corner.
*Tell us about a day that changed your life. It can be happy, sad, funny, inspirational. It just needs to be focused on one day that means a lot to you. If we use your story we will send you a prize worth £50 from Debenhams, Basildon.
Send details of your story to us at echowoman@nqe.com by post to Echo Woman, Features, The Echo, Newspaper House, Chester Hall Lane, Basildon, Essex, SS14 3BL or call 01268 469380.
1:12pm Monday 31st March 2008
Print 
Email this 
CommentPosted by: Margaret Stoll, Rochford on 10:58am Tue 1 Apr 08
This is what I wrote to 'Echo' Letters after reading this story yesterday:
What a heart-warming story from Gloria Dyer (Echo Woman, Monday 31st March).
Like her, I fell in love all over again aged 62, although in our case, he was the one who was divorced (and facing a second divorce). Like her I had felt that life had nothing else to offer, following widowhood and redundancy 5 years earlier. I was struggling to keep a roof over my head, no job and a mortgage to pay. He had been badly abused in a disastrous marriage. We were two lonely people and suddenly, the world changed for us both.
Unlike Gloria, we wanted a proper church wedding. We had this at Rochford Methodist Church, where we both still worship, in January 2002. It's now more than 10 years since we got together and more than 6 years since our marriage.
I came in for criticism at the time by local women who thought I should be content to live as a widow for the rest of my life, and live on memories. I don't believe that. I believe that life is for living, living to the full, the whole of your life, for as long as you live.
Very best wishes to Gloria and Dennis.
This is what I wrote to 'Echo' Letters after reading this story yesterday:
What a heart-warming story from Gloria Dyer (Echo Woman, Monday 31st March).
Like her, I fell in love all over again aged 62, although in our case, he was the one who was divorced (and facing a second divorce). Like her I had felt that life had nothing else to offer, following widowhood and redundancy 5 years earlier. I was struggling to keep a roof over my head, no job and a mortgage to pay. He had been badly abused in a disastrous marriage. We were two lonely people and suddenly, the world changed for us both.
Unlike Gloria, we wanted a proper church wedding. We had this at Rochford Methodist Church, where we both still worship, in January 2002. It's now more than 10 years since we got together and more than 6 years since our marriage.
I came in for criticism at the time by local women who thought I should be content to live as a widow for the rest of my life, and live on memories. I don't believe that. I believe that life is for living, living to the full, the whole of your life, for as long as you live.
Very best wishes to Gloria and Dennis.
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
