Love in Later Life

In an attempt to expand your romantic imagination, Word of Mouth takes on a topic neglected by our culture and science alike - love among the senior set.

Stories, songs and poems of youthful lust have guided us for millenia, but people live to be older now, creating new models for passionate love and desire once we hit our 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond. What happens as boomers age and find themselves single? What happens to the family when a parent marries at 85?

Amanda Smith Barusch is a professor of gerontology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Her new book is "Love Stories of Later Life: A Narrative Approach to Understanding Romance." She’s on sabbatical at the University of Utah, and joins Word of Mouth from KUER in Salt Lake City.

We also hear from seniors interested in finding love at Chicago's annual "Sweetheart’s Ball." Women usually outnumber men there by a ratio of 8 to 1. Producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister of Long Haul Productions visited the ball to talk to some of the ladies there.

(Photo by Patrick)