The need for a close friend and companion intensifies with age. What happens when your person is no longer with you?
There is a strong need for someone to hold your hand and walk through life in your 50s and beyond.
While the idea of remarriage may have been taboo in the past, today, it is accepted and even encouraged.
Here are five incredible tales of couples who found love in their 40s and 50s.
Actor and motivational speaker Ashish Vidyarthi (57) married Rupali Barua (50), an entrepreneur, in May 2023.
1. Rupali and Ashish
After his divorce at 55, he expressed his desire for a partner to travel the world with. “I let the word out into the universe,” he shared in one of his videos.
Rupali, who had been widowed a few years earlier, had not considered remarriage until she connected with Ashish during one of his vlogging assignments.
Ashish explains that happiness is a universal need. “One thing common between all of us is that we want to be happy. Age doesn’t matter, my friend; each one of us deserves to be happy,” he says.
Gokul Sreedhar got his mother remarried, after he watched her suffer through an unhappy, abusive marriage. She walked out when he was in Class 10.
2. Mini and Venu
“At least now I want her to live her life for herself,” shares Gokul, who lives in Kollam, Kerala.
After his parent’s divorce in 2013, his mother, Mini, started working as a librarian. Convincing her to get married again was not a cakewalk. Through her colleagues, they found a match for her in K Venu, a retired army colonel and widower.
“She sacrificed her youth for me, but there’s so much more to life, and I am happy that she can now explore it,” Gokul wrote in the post.
Vaishali Chandorkar Chitale lost her first husband in 2000 and decided to raise her children alone.
3. Vaishali and Prashant
Her mother made her meet Prashant in 2004, and found him ‘kind, compassionate, and caring’. He had lost his wife to cancer and had three children.
They both eventually found companions who were in similar circumstances and could empathise with their respective situations. “I realised that after everything, I could still feel, and I felt for him — I fell in love again,” Vaishali told the Humans Of Bombay.
Today, they’ve been married for 20 years and are parents to five children and many grandchildren.
Vaishali is today an advocate for other women to pursue their dreams and happiness after a tragedy.
Moushumi lost her husband at 25, and raised her daughter Debarti alone. In 2021, Debarti realised that there was a man who liked her mom.
4. Moushumi and Swapan
Moushumi met Swapan on a singing app, where they befriended each other on her daughter’s insistence.
“Things progressed positively. Swapan is amazing and mom got along beautifully with him. He accepted mom with all his heart and showers her with the love she needed,” Debarti told SheThePeople.
They got married in March 2022. “I just want to tell the world that just like parents do their best for their children’s happiness, similarly, children are equally responsible for their parents’ happiness. I feel lucky that I got the opportunity to help my mother get her happiness,” she told SheThePeople.
Actress Suhasini Mulay met her husband, Atul Gurtu, a particle physicist, through Facebook in 2011, when he sent her a friend request.
5. Suhasini and Atul
Curious about why this scientist would befriend her, she accepted the request. They got chatting, which later led to physical meetings.
In an interview with the Hindustan Times, the 72-year-old shared what Atul told her, “You are very happy and busy running around, but if you want change [companionship], that won’t happen automatically.”
Having lived alone in Mumbai for 20 years before meeting Atul, this is Suhasini’s first marriage. “I never thought of getting married. You commit because you want to, not because society is pushing you,” she said to Hindustan Times.