My Shrinking Circle of Friends:
I’m getting older, and my friends are, too.
Most of them are retired like me and have decided to relocate to warmer climes or live closer to the grandchildren, or cut their expenses and live where the real estate taxes aren’t double their mortgage payments.
I don’t blame my friends for leaving me behind. I just miss them.
How the hell am I supposed to make new friends at my age? I’m 76.
Naturally, I googled to find articles about my predicament, hopeful that there were some studies of wise senior women and men who’d filled their dance cards with all sorts of new friends.
Not to demean the serious research on the subject of friendship, but I found the advice for making new friends eerily similar to finding a partner or mate or a hookup on dating sites like eharmony and Match. In fact, there are dating sites for seniors — of course, there are. And why not?
According to the “2020 Profile of Older Americans” and the 2019 census, there are:
- 54.1 million Americans 65+ — That’s 16% of the total population
- That number is projected to jump to 94.7 million by 2060 (Alas, I’m confident that I won’t be around.)
Okay, with all these millions of seniors running around the country, how do you find and…
