Magic at Midlife: Your Relationship Roadmap for Romance After 40

Jennifer Y. Levy-Peck, PhD, is a psychologist and somewhat of a romantic. Her grandmother, who was widowed at the age of 50, lived to be 107 and never remarried.

When Jennifer also lost her husband when she was 50, she realized she didn’t want to spend the second half of her life alone– and fortunately, she met Charles Peck, and they fell in love. They will be writing for Northwest Prime Time and they are also working on a book to provide practical tools, skills, and resources for people over 40 whose destination is a fulfilling and lasting romantic partnership.

Magic at Midlife is based on our personal experiences and the stories of others, Jennifer’s psychological knowledge, and our shared vision of how to create and maintain a relationship that is wonderfully thrilling at any age.

More than 52 million Americans age 40 and older are single. Many of these mature singles want the same thing in their forties, fifties, or sixties (or beyond!) that they sought in their twenties: a loving, committed relationship with a lifelong partner. Like Jennifer, they don’t want to grow old alone.

When she re-entered the dating world, Jennifer had not dated anyone except her first husband since age 16. Despite many years of experience as a clinical psychologist, she felt as tentative as a teenager. After a long-term marriage and a divorce, Charles had a brief “oops” marriage before meeting Jennifer online and realizing together that they needed skills as well as passion to make a midlife marriage work.

Inevitably, whenever Jennifer and Charles mention that they have been married just a few years or that they are writing a book on midlife romance, a single person in the group laughs and says, “We need to talk!” The yearning for love and companionship is nearly universal, as is the uncertainty about how to proceed with this quest in today’s confusing world.

Stay tuned for more relationship revelations from Jennifer and Charles, who will be writing a regular “Magic at Midlife” column for northwestprimetime.com. In the meantime, you can participate in the creation of the book by sharing your experiences in a survey: www.surveymonkey.com/s/MidlifeRelationships .

©2013 by Jennifer Y. Levy-Peck and Charles Peck