All Chapters of Starting Over at Sixty Years Old: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

Today is my wedding anniversary with my husband Arthur Jones. For some reason, he would always be away during this exact date.We had been married for more than forty years and yet, he refused to spend any romantic, special occasions with me.After finishing breakfast all alone, I went to mop the floor. I was just passing by the study when I caught the mess piled up at the bookshelf from the corner of my eye.With a dragged out sigh, I set aside the mop and went inside to sort out the mess.When I got to the topmost row, a heavy book with a thick and intricate cover dropped and smacked against my head. The abrupt pain made me hiss.It took a while before I finally realized that what I was looking at was not any ordinary book. Instead, it was a wedding album.All of the pictures inside featured the same pair of couple. They were dressed in different sets of wedding gowns and suits in each picture, the only thing that was consistent was the bright, heartwarming smile they wore on t

Chapter 2

Suddenly, there was a glow in his eyes. A tender smile came over his usually solemn expression.I followed his line of sight and spotted an older lady dressed in a gown who had just stepped out of the fitting room. Her silver hair was bound up expertly in a bun and had an intricate flower pin poking through it.She was the woman in the pictures.They stood hand in hand and stared at each other with deep affection in their eyes.I felt the world crumbling around me.There was a storm. The clouds above were ominously black and beating thunder.I did not bring an umbrella with me and had to duck under the eaves to get away from the rain.Soon, one of the employees came to collect the signboards left outside. Upon noticing me, she tried to bring me inside for shelter.“Hey lady, it's raining out here! Come on in and take shelter from the rain so you don’t catch a cold!”She put her saleswoman instincts to work while bringing me inside.“Check out our collection of wedding dresses

Chapter 3

Arthur hailed a taxi and gently escorted Sylvia into the taxi before burrowing inside as well.I have never experienced such a level of thoughtfulness and attentiveness from him.…I was not going to wait around at the studio like a fool for Arthur to come back for me.I could get a taxi myself, there was no reason to wait for him.I called a taxi and had them drive to the front of the studio. I even troubled the driver to step out and escort me into the car with an umbrella so I would not get caught in the rain.At my age, I am especially vulnerable to sickness.Therefore, I have to take care of myself.Arthur returned two hours after I got home.As soon as he entered the house, he yelled at me with a dark look on his face, “Cecil, haven’t I told you to just wait for me back at the studio? Did you know that I got drenched in the rain because I headed back there to look for you?”I set aside a cup of hot water I had poured for myself and retorted with a question of my own, “H

Chapter 4

Arthur neither agreed to my tactful suggestion for divorce nor did he refuse the option.He refused to communicate and with that, we began to stonewall each other.The combination of being drenched in the rain last night and his age had not been merciful to him. His health was no longer what it once was and he ended up catching a mild fever the next day.In the past, my reaction to him being sick would have been quite dramatic but now, I was indifferent. I even thought he deserved it.From thereon, I would only make a single portion of food for each meal. After my meals, I would head to the park for my routine yoga exercise or sometimes go shopping with my old friends.I also found time to look at some houses since I planned to move out in several days.Since I no longer had to worry about attending to trivial tasks at home, I found myself in a far more relaxed state.Soon, word of me proposing a divorce reached my son.Since he was still abroad, he did not think much of it at

Chapter 5

It was around evening when my son came home with Arthur who had largely recovered from his fever.The fever had done a number on him. He seemed to have grown older and looked very haggard.My son on the other hand seemed very stoic. He still resented me for slapping him.My daughter-in-law greeted me relatively politely while my granddaughter ran to me and cried out cheerily, “Grandma, please don’t leave gramps, I want us all to live together happily forever!”I did not expect them to tell my granddaughter who was just a sweet and innocent child about everything that went down.I gently pinched her chubby cheeks and assured her tenderly, “My dear, even if grandma leaves, I will still make time to come back to see you.”My son scoffed at the remark.Arthur could not take it anymore and hissed at me between his teeth, “Do you have to do this?”My daughter-in-law could sense the change in the atmosphere and wisely took her daughter to another room to play.Now that the child was

Chapter 6

Tasha, who was about my age and lived next door, threw her door open and bellowed.“Go to hell! Do you think being sixty years old means you’re one foot in the grave already? We can easily live another twenty years, but not with someone like you though! Living just a year with you is hell!“Quit whining and scram! I’m done listening to you complaining!”My son was no match for Tasha.His objections were caught in his throat and he ended up having to scurry away with his head hung low....Thirty days passed in the blink of an eye. With that, I went to the court with Arthur to get the official documents for our divorce.The moment I got the document, a wave of relief washed over me.At that very moment, the weight that I had been carrying for most of my life had been taken off my shoulders.Arthur was not as thrilled as I thought he would be.He was very gloomy on the whole and I could recognize the fatigue in his eyes.He clutched the document tightly and looked at me, it lo

Chapter 7

The other day back at the court, someone had been filming the exchange between myself, Sylvia, and Arthur.My face was blurred, but their faces were not.“Forever love? As if! These two are a pair of venomous snakes, that’s what they are!”“There were several witnesses that day, they all saw the old fart wanting to divorce his wife! Meanwhile his mistress has been shamelessly flaunting herself to the world, how can you live this long but still have no self-respect?”The scandal began to fester online and even the boutique studio caught some heat for advertising a false romance. They had no choice but to release a statement.They claimed all they did was take pictures for the couple. Furthermore, Sylvia and Arthur had been religiously coming to the photoshoot every year so they had no reason to suspect their relationship.This only further enraged the netizens.“This old fart used to be the foreign language professor in my previous university! He was a very attentive professor, I

Chapter 8

As it turned out, my granddaughter had been brainwashed, her idea of love had been corrupted by Sylvia. Not only did she begin to idolize the role of a mistress, but she also started chatting with some strangers online.My daughter-in-law sneered sardonically, then she called my son and made him go home at once.“Look what she’s done to our daughter.”She proceeded to show my son the conversation logs my granddaughter had been having with strangers online.My son clenched the phone tightly while his frown gradually tightened.After he had finished reading the messages, his first thought was to give my granddaughter a furious beating. However, my granddaughter cried out and pleaded for mercy, “It was Grandma Sylvia who taught me! You were the one who said that I should listen to her like I should listen to my teachers because she's a well-educated granny!”My son was stunned and turned to cast a baffled look at Sylvia.“Sylvia, I let you take care of my daughter because I trust

Chapter 9

Arthur turned pale in an instant and was at a loss for words. I could recognize the anguish in his eyes.My son could not bear to see him so distraught too. He whimpered softly, “Mom.”I was done talking to them. I shut the door and cut them out of my world.It took another three months before I heard the news about Arthur again.By then, I had a well-developed foundation of foreign languages and could maintain basic conversation.I received an unexpected call from my son. He told me Arthur was in the hospital.He was admitted because of carbon monoxide poisoning.What I gathered was that Sylvia was cooking in the kitchen when she got into a heated argument with Arthur. They were so busy arguing that she completely forgot about turning off the gas stove.Fortunately, the property maintenance staff happened to be inspecting the wires and managed to rescue both of them in time.It was not as severe in Sylvia’s case. She woke up shortly after the doctors treated her.Upon waking

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