AVONDALE, N.L. - The four women sipping tea around an antique wooden table in rural Newfoundland said they weren’t looking for much in a mate: kindness, humour, a good sense of fun and, ideally, a full set of teeth.
Sick of dating apps and with few places to meet men in person, the women were at a new speed-dating event for seniors at a railway station museum in Avondale, N.L., about 40 kilometres southwest of St.
John’s. They hoped to put down their phones, look someone in the eye and make a real connection. “I’m retired.
I babysit my grandpuppy, I go visit my single girlfriends. At my age, I’m like, OK, where do you go?” asked Daphne Simmons, 65. Her sense of humour had everyone at ease within minutes, even as a reporter watched them go on six-minute dates.
“If I was 40 or 30, I’d be downtown,” Simmons said, referring to St. John’s, where there are plenty of bars and clubs in which to catch someone’s eye. “I met my late husband downtown, and he was the best man that ever walked this Earth.
” Single men her age are exhausted too, she added. Those she has met through apps and websites have the same complaints trying to meet women. “I might have to start crashing funerals,” Simmons joked.
It is widely agreed that dating can be difficult. The women in Avondale on a recent Friday afternoon bonded over a shared portfolio of horror stories that would make love-seekers of any age wince with recognition: online matches that will message but not meet, pro.