On the other hand, she said, "The conversations and the expectations come easier because you've had a lifetime of experiences that you can draw from."
Seniors who have loved long and well find younger generations' angst about love a bit baffling. For three couples interviewed recently at Brighton Gardens, the answer to the burning question - "What's the secret?" - is simple.
"Commitment," said Anne W. Bloom, wife of Samuel Bloom for 62 years. "I don't think the young people know what the word `commitment' means."
The Blooms retired together to the assisted-living center. She's 81 now; he'll be 87 next month.
Theirs hasn't been a syrupy journey of moonlight walks, roses and sweet nothings. It has been more one of family trips and laughter and straight shooting.
Samuel proposed to her by saying, simply, "Annie, I had a dream last night that I changed your name to mine. Wanna marry me?"
She did.
"He was a red-headed sailor, and I wanted all my kids to be redheads," said Anne. "And he was always very nice. I liked the way he treated my mother. And I liked the way he treated me."
They've survived a lot - Samuel going off to war, a son with a brain aneurism, a daughter battling lung cancer. Samuel can't hear very well now, and his peripheral vision is all but gone.
But not once, through all the low moments, have they thought of divorcing.
"Never entered our minds," said Samuel. "Simple as that."
Then there's the love story of Elsie and Louie Swartz.
She was in high school when he spied her walking to and fro in front of the house where he was renting a room. There were none of the machinations of today's dating traditions. No "wait-three-days-before-calling-for-a-date." No "pretend-to-be-busy-when-he-finally-does-call." Back then, hoops were for rolling, not jumping through.
"He was on the night shift and went to school during the day," said Elsie, 83. "I used to pass him when he would sit on the porch. He would smile; I would smile. A smile turned into a big smile, a `Hello' and a `How are you?' We started to talk and one thing led to another."
The Swartzes have been married now 65 years - a happy marriage, Elsie said, which meant, to her, family togetherness, traveling and mutual support.
But the past few years have been a trial. Louie, 88, has Alzheimer's, and it's getting worse.
