Well, I just did it, but my story may not meet your requirements. <wink>

A few years ago, I ended a 15 year relationship that just wasn't very fulfilling. We are still very good friends but we both acknowledge that it wasn't very healthy to stay together.

So I moved to Mexico to go help a friend build a business. I was not ready for dating nor was it even on my mind since I was still trying to figure out what was going on in my life (mid life crisis, perhaps?). I did meet some wonderful people from all corners of the world but I was always by myself at night.

One night, a friend inited me out to a club with a lot of his friends. There were quite a few really nice looking younger (mid twenties) women with us and we had a great time just chatting and dancing. I was not even flirting with anyone. Then this girl about 28 years old that I had hardly even talked to, turned to me and said right to my face, "No voy acostarme contigo." (I'm not going to sleep with you). LOL! I was so surprised at this out of the blue comment that I smiled, said ok, and started talking to her more and dancing with her.

That was almost two years ago and we are still together - and deeply in love. My life seems right again. I am 47 years old.

So, although she is a lot younger then I am, I feel that I have found love again in my late forties. Of course, I still love my daughters and have many friends that I love dearly. But I think you are referring to intimate love.

Its all good. Often love just finds you.

I was a bachelor until I was 41. I had had many relationships and one night stands, and for the most part, I enjoyed living alone. What happened? I went back to work at a radio station I had worked at about six years previously. When I walked back in the door, one of the women working there had been there the first time I had been employed there. She had just started working there again too.

She had been married the first time I knew her, so I asked her if she still lived out on the farm that she and her husband had had. She smiled and told me that she was divorced. We kept running into each other at various country music night spots, and eventually started dating.

My parents came to visit me and invited Alma (my now wife) to join us for dinner. My mother got a little tipsy at dinner and asked her, "Will you marry my son?" I was still a confirmed bachelor, and did not appreciate my mother puting ideas of this sort into Alma's head.

My dad later commented to me that if I let Alma get away (like all the others, I guess), I was crazy. A few months later, my dad died suddenly. I had been fired from the radio job, and Alma had quit and was managing an apartment complex. She dropped everything and she went with me to be with my mom and attend the funeral. It was at that time of sorrow, that I realized how supportive Alma had been for me and for the rest of my family. So late one evening before we returned home, I asked her to marry me.

We will have been married 19 years this August. I have never regretted proposing, and I'm happy that I waited so long to find the right life-mate.

I would caution you to stay away from someone with a large age difference. Just last week, one of Alma's friends who had been married to a man over 20 years younger than she, called to tell Alma that the husband had asked for a divorce, claiming that she had "robbed me of my youth." Going the other way with a much older man could be just as disasterous.

There are available guys out there near your age. Chances are, the one you're looking for isn't sitting in some bar. Check your local paper for clubs and organizations that do things you're interested in. My sister met her second husband at a square dance club when she was in her 50s. If you have women friends, let them know what you're interested in in a man. Kind of like networking.

He's out there. Just be patient.

I started living with the "love of my life" at about 43. Had my first and only child at 47. Unfortunately my wife and I are divorcing right now, but we did stick it out for a good 15 years or so, some of which were good...

She is now 50 and just found a new love. I am staying away from relationships at the moment.

There is PLENTY of romance left in the 40s, 50s and beyond... Really. My suggestion is to relax, have fun, make friends ane let life be life...

I don't want to date for a while because I don't want to be on the rebound, but I think it might make me feel better to know that people actually do discover new love in middle age.<<<

Yeah, me too! I'm going to be 44 in 4 days...My sweetie is 10 years younger than me, and although we got back together after he broke up with me for a few days, I am having a hard time seeing the difference between beign together and being apart, except I don't burst into tears every time I look at him...I wish I found guys my own age attractive, (some are, but those are the ones happily married to younger women in the small circle I inhabit) I feel a lot younger than I am, but I'm not sure it will ever really work with someone a whole decade behind me.

I know of at least one person in this tribe who is probably enjoying the hell out of my sorrow and longing...I got enough nasty PMs about my relationship to know that that person is taking some joy out of my sadness...But I could use some encouragement from other people if there's some to be had...

I'm over 39, so I qualify, but sometimes I feel like I don't belong in here since I'm really not that happy about it...

Yes: romance, frustration, passion, heartache, crushes, false starts, sleepless nights, forbidden fruits, butterflies, rejection, surrender, everything reminds you of her and it's wonderful, everything reminds you of her and it's awful, everything pretty much the way it was when you were in your twenties.

Except the sex is better.

I got married to my best boyfriend when I was 45

note: he's still my best boyfriend and we still date/court

life is over when you let it be

I met George [now 45] when I was 39. We've been together for 3 years and it's the best relationship we have ever had.

My marriage of 11 years ended 2 years ago just before I turned 44. It felt odd to be dating and "middle aged" but it has been an adventure of the best kind after I got my feet back on the ground. And, for my taste, Frenhofer is right; give me a man in his 40's any day-- the most amazing lovers I have ever met are my peers. They blow my socks off.

Melodius,
I've been married four times. The fourth just two weeks ago. I'm 47. First time was at 19 for no good reason. The second time at 21 because of passion and enchantment. The third time at 33, on the rebound, and then there was this man. I've wondered if I'm only good for a decade, but truth to tell it doesnt matter. There is passion, and joy and friendship and partnership here. We got married inside a sculpture at a museum, and honeymooned in venice. We've survived all the odds, two divorces, incorporating the kids in our new life, and two house remodels.
We're honest, experienced and have a sense of the dimensions of the word love - things we didn't have when we were younger. We've held on to the sense of adenture and kept the eight year old alive in ourselves. For us that's the magic I think.
There are lots of men in the 42-52 age bracket who will value a real friend, experienced lover, and equal partner.

It's not quite middle age, but...

My parents divorced shortly after I was born, and I don't think my mother dated at all between the time I was five or so and my thirties.

She's in her mid-to-late sixties now. She met someone about a year and a half ago, and they're getting married sometime this year.

I was a confirmed bachelor. I was fixing up my house exactly the way that only I liked it because I absolutely and happily expected to live alone for the rest of my life. I had two or three lovers I had been seeing for months or years, but I rarely let any of them sleep over.

Blue and I had our first date on my 49th birthday. I thought it would be one night of fun. Butch women "never take me seriously," you see.

That was five years ago. We bought a house together about a year ago. We're fixing it up exactly the way we like it, but with no rush. We have plenty of time.

This is the most committed AND playful partnership I have ever experienced. Being with Blue is an additional motivation to stay healthy and active so that I can live forever -- with her.

My breakup beat the tar out of me too. I was married for 13yrs and the senseless way the whole thing ended has left me rather guarded. I don't think it impossible to meet someone at my age (43) but I find it hard to extend myself, as I know how much pain it can result in.
Some days I feel this way and some days I don't.

It is not as bad as it was a few years ago.
I have met a few people but nothing lasting yet.

You're not wrong.
2 broken hearts, and 5 long term live-in relationships later has made me
skeptical. I also have a had a pattern with men my age or younger. I'm 45 and just realized that people consider me middle-aged.
(Horrors!) I sure don't feel grown up. I think I'm too immature for older men, and by the time I do feel like an adult I'll be 90.
So I guess I'll just stick to my fat kitty