From the time I was a young girl in my teens I yearned for the close company of a boy who would value our relationship, a special one that only we together would share. I met that boy when we were both fourteen. That special relationship speedily developed. It has matured considerably since then, almost 60 years later. We have shared our lives together.

She too seems to need the constant companionship of a man. She is now 50. Over the years she has shared many companionships. None of which turned out to represent what she needed. These were sometimes-brief, sometimes lengthy alliances, ranging from months to twenty years of shared experiences, and all failed. She still yearns for what she has never quite managed to achieve; a lasting, mutually-beneficial tandem of committed love.

Each time one of her alliances fails and she parts from the disappointment of her emotional aspirations she tells herself that she is doomed to go through life without having ever experienced the kind of relationship she yearns toward. She descends into an abyss of dejected failure; bleak, black moods of despair.

And then suddenly there appears someone who expresses a deep interest in her and she responds, thankfully. Pitting all her hopes once again in the potential of achieving the good fortune of finding someone who will share her desires, her values, her needs and priorities.