‘We Found Love in Our 50s & Life Couldn’t Be More Beautiful’: 5 Stories of Second Chances
Remarriage, once taboo, is now embraced, exemplified by children advocating for their parents’ happiness. These Valentine’s Day tales of love underscore the timeless strength of love and the need for companionship at all ages.
Companionship is a fundamental human need. After a long day, many of us crave the comfort of coming home to someone with whom we can share our daily experiences. But what happens when that person is no longer with us, due to circumstances within or beyond our control?
Does the desire for companionship diminish with age?
On the contrary, as children grow up and move on to their own lives, the longing for a close friend, a true companion, “your person”, only intensifies in most people. Navigating one’s 50s and the years beyond retirement is then made easier with a partner to love and cherish by your side.
While the idea of remarriage may have been taboo in the past, today, it is accepted and even encouraged. We see examples of children actively encouraging their single parents to find love again because whether you’re in your 20s, 30s, or 70s, the pursuit of happiness knows no age limit. It’s a beautiful reversal of roles, with children advocating for their parents to “settle down” and find happiness once again.
This Valentine’s Day, we present to you tales of couples who discovered love in their 40s and 50s. These incredible love stories serve as a testament to the enduring power of that elusive four-letter word.
1. ‘We all deserve to be happy’
At 57, actor and motivational speaker Ashish Vidyarthi married Rupali Barua, an entrepreneur, in May 2023.
Ashish, known for his travel and food vlogs on YouTube, spoke about the perpetual quest for companionship at any stage of life. Having previously been married to Rajoshi, they amicably parted ways. At 55, after his divorce, Ashish expressed his desire to find a partner for marriage, with whom he could travel the world.
“I let the word out into the universe,” he shared in one of his videos. And soon enough, he met Rupali.
Rupali, who had been widowed a few years earlier, had not considered remarriage until she connected with Ashish during one of his vlogging assignments. Rupali was 50 and Ashish was 57 when they found love in each other. As they spoke, they discovered the possibility of sharing their life together, making a fresh start.
In May 2023, they tied the know and embarked on a journey of exploring the world together, documenting their experience through videos on their YouTube channel ‘Fifty Plus Zindagi’.
Ashish explains that happiness is a universal need. “One thing common between all of us is that we want to be happy. Age doesn’t matter my friend; each one of us deserves to be happy,” he says.
2. ‘I got my mother remarried’
Gokul Sreedhar grew up watching his mother suffer through an unhappy, abusive marriage. When he was in Class 10, his mother finally walked out of her marriage. When he asked his mother why she endured this unhappiness for so many years, she told him that she was living for him.
As he walked out of that house holding his mother’s hand, he vowed to get her remarried. He wanted her to start living for herself and break the pattern of always putting others first.
“At least, now I want her to live her life, for herself,” shares Gokul, who lives in Kollam, Kerala.
After his parent’s divorce in 2013, his mother, Mini, started working as a librarian. Convincing her to get married again was not a cakewalk. Through her colleagues, they found a match for her in K Venu, a retired army colonel and widower.
He shared this story on Facebook, and the post went viral, with other children expressing their desire to get their single parents married.
“She sacrificed her youth for me, but there’s so much more to life, and I am happy that she can now explore it,” Gokul wrote in the post.
3. ‘I gave love a second chance’
Vaishali Chandorkar Chitale lost the “love of her life”, her first husband, in 2000. At the time, she didn’t think that she could find love again and decided to raise her children alone. But her mother had other plans.
Four years later, she broached the topic of Vaishali marrying again. Her mother arranged a meeting with Prashant, and Vaishali agreed, but with a few caveats.
“I wanted the person to have a daughter because I too have a daughter. I wanted someone who had also lost their partner because I wanted to freely talk about the memories of my first husband, and I wanted them also to talk about their past. Just because you are moving on doesn’t mean you love someone any less,” she notes.
When she first met Prashant, it was just to pacify her mother, and if nothing, to make a friend. But in Prashant, she found her match. He had lost his wife to cancer and had three children. Vaishali found him “kind, compassionate, and caring”, and the first meeting led to many more meetings.
They both eventually found companions who were in similar circumstances and could empathise with their respective situations. “I realised that after everything, I could still feel, and I felt for him — I fell in love again,” Vaishali told the Humans Of Bombay.
Today, they’ve been married for 20 years and are parents to five children and many grandchildren. Their children took time to accept the new family, but today, they are a solid, successful unit with plenty of love going around.
When Prashant’s daughter got married, she turned to Vaishali and asked her if she could call her “mom”, since she had been just that for so many years. It was a moment Vaishali says she will cherish forever.
Vaishali today is an advocate for other women to pursue their dreams and happiness after a tragedy. “I would say that the most important thing is that you are happy. You shouldn’t care about society. I advise girls who have lost their husbands that it isn’t a cue for them to stop living their lives.”
4. ‘I helped my mother find happiness again’
Debarti Chakravorty got a call from her aunt sometime in 2021, saying, “Hey, there’s a man who likes your mom.” This sentence made the Shillong resident seriously consider the need for a partner in her mother’s life.
Debarti’s father passed away when she was just two, and her mother Moushumi, was just 25. They moved back to her maternal home in Shillong, where Moushumi struggled to make ends meet to ensure a good life for her daughter.
Over the years, many people asked Moushumi to consider remarriage, but she only focused on her daughter. As Debarti grew up, she moved to Mumbai for her education. That’s when her mother joined a singing app, where she met Swapan.
Swapan approached Moushumi through the app. But having been single for over 25 years, she was reluctant to the idea of finding love again. Debarti encouraged her to just befriend Swapan and proceed as per her wish.
“Things progressed positively. Swapan is amazing and my mom got along beautifully with him. He accepted her with all his heart, and now showers her with all the love she needs,” Debarti said to SheThePeople. Finally, in March 2022, the duo got married, and Debarti found a father and the family she craved for.
“I just want to tell the world that just like parents do their best for their children’s happiness, similarly, children are equally responsible for their parents’ happiness. I feel lucky that I got the opportunity to help my mother get her happiness,” she told SheThePeople.
5. ‘Finally, I married because I wanted to’
Actress Suhasini Mulay met her husband Atul Gurtu through Facebook in 2011. She opened an account on the social networking site to get work. It was here that the particle physicist sent her a friend request. Curious about why this scientist would befriend her, she accepted the request, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The two got chatting about science, which later led to their meeting. In an interview with the Hindustan Times, the 72-year-old shared that Atul told her, “You are very happy and busy running around, but if you want change [companionship], that won’t happen automatically.”
An article penned by Atul, who had tragically lost his wife of 36 years to cancer, had a profound impact on Suhasini. Atul’s narrative showed how he decided to make his late wife happy, instead of “sitting and crying over it”. This resilient outlook towards life resonated with Suhasini and was instrumental in her falling in love with Atul.
Having lived alone in Mumbai for 20 years before meeting Atul, this is Suhasini’s first marriage. “I never thought of getting married. You commit because you want to, not because society is pushing you,” she said to Hindustan Times.
Edited by Pranita Bhat
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