Recently I listened to a short story, Slingshot by Souvankham Thammavongsa , being read on the podcast Selected Shorts too hot for Radio . The story centers around a 70-year-old woman who meets a 32-year-old man, her neighbor, Richard, and they start a short, but intense, relationship. The woman has been a widow for 30 years and in her words, “I hadn't had sex for such a long time that I could consider myself a virgin. I couldn't remember how it all happens." That story, originally published in Harper's magazine in 2018 , made me wonder how many other stories are now being written about older characters being in love and having sex. That's not something we tend to acknowledge very often. It's as if we don't think older people have those desires. But they do. Recent studies, such as this one in Prevention Magazine , indicate that people well into their 80s and 90s still want romance and physical intimacy. "Sex isn't like a carton of milk that goes ...
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