Late Afternoon Delight [AUDIO]

In our youth-obsessed culture, advancing age usually means a step-by-step march to a spot on a shelf somewhere. But not everyone at that stage is convinced that retirement means relegation to the sidelines.  So on this Valentine's Day 2012, meet a woman whose fresh views of love and romance are inverting the syndrome. And she just turned 80.

Regina Dreyer Thomas's just-published book says it all: "Love And Successful Aging: When You're 70-Plus And Single." She says she wrote it to inspire older adults "in their 70s through 90s, and beyond," she says, "to trust their gut and open their mind and heart to a new relationship."

It's her second written work. Her first, she says, was a manual of a completely different sort, decades ago, when she was a dental hygenist.

Regina says her own experience with love led her to exploration, and revelations. "Many older adults...who may be widowed or divorced or never married - and there are quite a few of those - think that they're too old for love," she says. "And when I was 75, widowed, I met a gentleman, and we started a love relationship." Lucky Arthur Larsen is the man who squires Regina through the autumn of their years.

She then created a survey and sent it to various retirement communities, senior centers, and even acquaintances. The most difficult task, says Regina, was earning their trust that intimate details would be handled sensitively.

"I didn't ask any questions about sex or money, that's nobody's business," says Regina. But they tell intriguing tales, she continues, about "where they met, how they met...what they like about each other."

The responses are incorporated with essays written by Regina and acquaintances who were bold enough to bare their souls.

The two key questions from Regina's perspective are "What do your children think about the relationship?" and "Have you ever considered getting married?" She learned, surprisingly, that none of the respondents ever married their significant others or intend to do so, even if they've considered it. Each lives independently and dates.

"That's a big issue for children," she says, who have concerns about financial and emotional issues, and who often prefer remembering a departed spouse to meeting a new mate.

"The bottom line," she says, "is that the need for loving, and being loved, doesn't diminish with age."

Regina says that love's evolution over time teaches the value of time itself. "When you're younger, you fall in love, as it were, physically...and you're envisioning a future with this person," she relates. "When you're older, you're not envisioning a future...because your past is certainly much, much greater...so you have to think about the present, and stay in the present."

It took Regina most of a year to attract a distributor, but she's done it. "Love And Successful Aging" is available at Barnes and Noble in Monmouth and Ocean Counties, at http://www.amazon.com, both in hard copies and as downloads to Kindle or Nook.

She says the print edition was a hard-won concession for people in her age range who keep their affinity for the printed page. When you get the copy in the format you like, you'll find not only an eye-opening look at afterglow in the late afternoon...but also, ways for you to respond.

Love, seen through the wisdom of years, dispels G.B. Shaw's oft-quoted comment that youth is wasted on the young. Regina Dreyer Thomas proves that it's as deep as the color of a cherished, well-burnished mahogany heirloom, and as fresh as tomorrow.

Listen to an extended interview with Regina.

Segment 1

Segment 2

Segment 3