Dear Emily,

I am in my early 60s, content with being alone and busy with my own little travel business in a nice corner of the city. My last relationship was a 17-year-affair with a guy who couldn’t decide whether he was coming or going. I knew then that I was done with heartaches.

By accident, I met someone during a girl’s night out with my former classmates a decade or so ago. He was one of the hired escorts there to drink with us old fogeys. I took a shine to him and knew from his demeanor that I could bring him home.

Why not? I was single, as he was. That started our little weekly arrangement for a few years, till I left to live abroad.

When I came home years later, I saw a photograph of this dashing, handsome guy who I remembered from many, many years ago—plastered in commercials and movie houses. He finally fulfilled his dream and has made a name for himself! I asked a friend to arrange an “accidental” meeting with him and, when we did, I was surprised he still remembered me (or my generous tips?) and looked happy to see me again.

Later, he asked to bring me home—for old times’ sake—but I demurred. What amused me was, despite the truckloads of money this guy was already earning, his call-boy habit of not picking up the tab and still relying on the generosity of lonely older ladies has remained ingrained in him.

This is a little experience I thought I’d share about a lesson in life. Old habits truly die hard.

A HAPPY CAMPER

Refreshing to read once in a while how mature women are able to enjoy themselves without fear or rebuke from prying eyes and judgmental minds on what they do in the privacy of their own homes.

Your narrative proves that old habits really die hard, as in the case of this young man. Habits probably borne out of a not-long-ago poverty? But, more importantly, he didn’t forget you or get embarrassed by you, despite his fame and fortune. Seems you made a dent in his life—certainly in contributing to keeping his body and soul together during his salad days.

It only demonstrates that the world is in constant flux, that what goes around, comes around. There is no denying that fate is truly unpredictable—for those who dream or don’t.

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