- After losing two husbands, Dawn La Puma, 73, from Albany, WA, started dating in her mid-sixties in 2019
- She went on 75 first dates and would write about each one
- Dawn collated her diary notes and self-published her memoir Sixty, Single and Still Sizzling
Here she shares her story in her own words.
As my grandkids burst into laughter, I rolled my eyes.
‘Nan, no!’ one squealed.
It was 2019 and, a mother to three and grandmother to six, I’d just told them about my latest disastrous date – a wealthy farmer. He’d promised to buy me a house, lavish me with gifts and whisk me away, but insisted we could never live together and I wasn’t allowed to visit his farm.
‘Turns out he was still married,’ I sighed.
‘You’re joking!’ they gasped.
He’d explained his wife didn’t want a divorce because they didn’t want to split the family money.
‘You couldn’t make it up,’ I chuckled.
Marrying my first husband just weeks before turning 17, by 23 I’d had three children – two girls, Tina, now 56, Jo, 53, and a boy, Paul, 49.
We were so happy together for 29 years, before he tragically died after a parachuting accident, in 1998, aged 50.
Losing him shattered me.
In 2000, when I was 47, I met another lovely man through church. We married in 2003, but years later, I found myself a widow again.
Now in 2019, I was single in my mid-60s.
‘I still wanted passion and attraction.’
‘You should find yourself a companion,’ friends had said.
I knew my fire hadn’t gone out, and I still wanted passion and attraction.
My kids and grandkids encouraged me to give online dating a go.
Why not? I thought. It seemed to work for the younger generations.
‘You’re never too old to find love, Nan,’ they all said.
So, I entered the wild world of online dating, signing up to sites including Plenty of Fish and SilverSingles, trying free and paid memberships.
For my first date, I spent hours getting ready.
We met at a cafe for a cup of tea, but there was zero chemistry and when he declared sex was ‘overrated’, I knew there definitely wouldn’t be a second date. I might be a nan, but I still had needs!
When it came to meeting, I had first-date rules – such as only daytime coffee dates as they’re cheaper and easier to escape.
But no matter what rules I made for a fail-safe date, I managed to be matched with some odd bods. This married farmer was my latest dating debacle in a long line of crazy matches!
‘I made notes about my experiences.’
Soon after I started dating, I made diary notes about my experiences.
At first, it was simply so I could remember who was who, but before long, my diary became full of hilarious horror stories.
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I remember one date – the chap had seemed lovely online. But when I invited him over, he arrived with a pedicure kit, confessing he had a foot fetish.
Needless to say, we weren’t together long!
I realised that hunting for love later in life wasn’t easy, and living rurally in WA made the dating pool even smaller.
Exhausted by the endless dead-end liaisons, I opted out of the dating game in 2021.
Then one day an email arrived from a man named Pete. He’d recognised me from a dating site and reached out. His email wasn’t creepy, and I wanted to find out more.
We started chatting on the phone and I liked how genuine, kind, funny and normal he was.
Pete, then 69, was a father of one, grandfather to three and had also experienced loss.
After weeks of talking, he invited me to visit him at his canola farm south of Perth.
When we met, there was no great thunderbolt, but I was attracted to him.
Giggling over disastrous dates, we grew close and, in 2023, travelled 39,000km around Australia together in a campervan.
Every stop felt special because we were sharing it. During our epic adventure, I ended up needing a knee replacement on the Gold Coast.
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While recovering from surgery wasn’t exactly on the itinerary, having Pete there to help care for me made me realise just how lucky I was.
‘Well, if we can survive this without throttling each other, we’re in it for the long haul,’ I said as we neared the end of the trip.
Pete laughed so hard he nearly drove off the road!
‘We bought a house together.’
Then in 2025, when I was 72, Pete and I did something bold and exciting – we bought a house together and a general store in Youngs Siding, 33km west of Albany in WA.
After four years together, we’re incredibly happy and our families have warmly welcomed us into the fold.
I also collated all my diary notes and self-published my hilarious memoir, Sixty, Single and Still Sizzling, about the wild world of mature-age online dating.
Pete and the kids have been so supportive, and readers have said the book encouraged them to give love a go later in life.
Writing it sparked my creativity and I’ve since written a fantasy novel, The Blood of a Dragon.
I’m proof it’s never too late to find love.
I grabbed love by the horns again and, although it took 75 first dates, I finally found Pete, now 74.
Never let anyone tell you you’re too old for romance.
‘Getting older doesn’t mean becoming invisible.’
Put yourself out there and keep your sense of humour.
Getting older doesn’t mean becoming invisible or irrelevant.
Whether 60, 70 or beyond, we’re still sexy, sassy, sizzling, and have plenty to give when it comes to romance.
