Love stories aren’t always linear, or related to having a partner. Six women share how they found love in all its wonderful forms
WORDS: DANIELLA THEIS
LOVE SECOND TIME ROUND
Author Helen Garlick, whose memoir No Place To Lie was published in 2019, says she had done everything by the book when it came to finding love.
“I am from the silent generation where we didn’t talk about stuff and just got on with it,” the 65-year-old, originally from Yorkshire, explains.
“I was told that unless I would find a husband by the age of 30, I’d be on the shelf.
“My first marriage lasted for nearly 25 years. It was very much as if I had been given the template: it was getting married, get a house, have children, do all this kind of thing. But, ultimately, he wasn’t the right man for me.”
After a “difficult” divorce, Helen moved to London with her youngest, to be closer to her other daughter.
“I was on a journey of rediscovering myself just before I was 60,” she says. “We moved into a tiny flat in Hampstead. I was back working as a family lawyer, but I was doing a lot and just learning to love myself and creating a life.”
Helen’s journey didn’t come without challenges. In early 2016, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Still, it was this curveball that would lead her back into the world of dating after she recovered.
“I was thinking, ‘I love long conversations into the night’,” Helen explains. “I love books, I love laughing, going out and doing things – and I’d love to have a partner doing all that.”
So, she signed up to dating site match.com and created a profile, detailing what she wanted in a potential partner.
“I decided to put what I was looking for, and put quite a high bar,” Helen says. “I got the usual scammers and people pretending to be something else. Then Tim got in touch with me.”
The pair soon got talking. “We would be on the phone until after midnight sometimes. The conversations were great.”
Things were moving – although, Helen says, neither of them wanted to rush things.
Ultimately, Tim proposed, and the pair have been married since 2018.
While Helen has found love again in a partner, one key thing she wants to share with others is how loving yourself first is key. “I truly believe that you’ve got to be in love with yourself first. Then you are clear about your values and boundaries and
