Speaker: What is the '60 and Over Crowd' of women? Gloria MacDonald: The fourth group is what I call the '60 and Over Crowd'. This is where is does start to get more challenging again. Part of this is strictly because of the numbers; statistically from the age of 60 to 65, there are 25 singles females for every 10 single males. A lot of that is a higher mortality rate among men, a part of that is men getting in relationships with younger women. So men in there 60s might be in relationships with women in their 50s. So the sheer statistics, the numbers make it more challenging; but then there is a whole another level of challenge here and that is what I call a lifestyle and a life stage situation because somewhere usually between the age of 60 and 69 people start to retire. So, you might have a man who is 66-years-old, who is fit, in great shape and he is fully retired and he is looking for younger woman, but he wants that woman to be able to go play golf with him on a Tuesday afternoon or be able to take off with him to Florida for five or six weeks during the winter and that women who is in her early 60's may very well be working fulltime and she does not have the flexibility and freedom to just take off for a round of golf in the middle of the afternoon or leave her job for five or six weeks in the winter. So we start to get into lifestyle challenges where one person has a lot more free time and flexibility than another person. Then the other thing is a life stage and lifestyle situation where activity level starts to change. So you could have someone who is now in their early 70s, who wants to meet someone who is in their mid 60s or something like that; but the person who is in their early 70s has really stared to wind down from an activity level point of view. They are not moving as quickly, maybe. I am not saying that they are not active and fit, but they are doing things that are slightly less active and yet the man might still want the younger woman; or even if two people of the same age, you can have two people that are both 68-years-old, they can be very different in terms of their physical activity levels, their energy levels and I find that from in that 60 plus group there are whole lot of different things going on. Not only are there a whole lot fewer single men, but you do have that life stage and lifestyle situation in terms of who is working fulltime, who is retired and how active people are and where they are at mentally in terms of going out and trying new things versus winding life down. So a lot of different things to think about in this group, which does make it challenging, but still do not ever give up. There still are great men out there and do not give up. There is another great cartoon in our book, 'Laws of the Jungle: Dating for Women Over 4.

' By that cartoon is Kathy Thorn that I think is great for the 60 and over group.

"Getting older has many advantages. I am still as imperfect as ever, but I no longer care.

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