ON THE DAY I MARRIED A MAN FOUR DECADES OLDER THAN ME, AN ELDERLY WOMAN PULLED ME ASIDE AND MURMURED, “BEFORE YOU LEAVE FOR YOUR HONEYMOON, LOOK INSIDE THE BOTTOM DRAWER OF HIS DESK… OR YOU MAY REGRET IT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.”

I chose to marry someone much older because I believed he could offer my children the sense of stability I had failed to provide on my own.

At thirty, I was a single mother raising two young kids—a child in kindergarten and another in second grade. Their father had vanished shortly after our youngest was born, leaving no trace behind.…continue reading …