I'm in my late 40s so not out of the dating pool as such, but being a woman with the same life story, I too have found freedom in reaching a place in life where I no longer feel the same pressure to be with someone at any cost. I've been single for years now and have gone through various moments of grief and self reflective episodes in which I have had to experience that sense of emptiness, yet by shining a light on those feelings of loss or emptiness, or whatever it is a person experiences that we umbrella as loneliness, I have reached a place where I no longer feel lonely and any negative feelings I have about myself are no longer tied to the notion of being improved or indeed completed by being in a relationship. To summarise I no longer need another person to feel validated and I feel whole! If a person happens to drop in to my life, great, but I no longer feel the need to seek them out and am happy to be a crazy cat lady if that is where I end up in life.