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The Greatest Lesson of the Pandemic Is Commitment
What a woman in her seventies has learned from dating in the time of Covid
In March, when the stay-at-home order came down with a thud, I found myself in a relationship that quickly became more intense and consuming than any I’d had for a decade. In my seventies, I’d recently met a man on a dating site who seemed “possible,” if not a perfect match. In other times, we might have had a few dates and found a reason to drift away. But this was dating in the time of Covid. It was as if we were the only two people on an island. We looked for common interests, shared some laughs, and, most surprisingly, found the physical chemistry was off the charts.
After quarantining for 14 days to make sure we didn’t have Covid, we came together for our second date. It lasted three days.
The same thing happened to my friend, Jackie, who’d met a guy the day before the shutdown. Now they’re sheltering together. When the four of us met at a park, Jackie and I were both a little shocked. I’m tall, and my guy, Adam, is a head shorter and weighs 10 pounds less. We’re an odd-looking couple. Jackie’s an opera singer, and her guy has never heard of Madame Butterfly.
“The music stopped, and this is where we landed,” she said with a laugh. But it was working and we…
