I've been a widower for 10 years. I managed to finish raising my two daughters on my own, have had the same job for over 17 years and find ways to keep occupied, even during the pandemic. My problem is loneliness...soul-crushing to the bone.

I have spent more than half my adult life alone, as I did not meet my wife until I was 29, and then lost her at 46. I am 56 now. When you get widowed you first lose your married friends, then as your children grow up you no longer see the parents of their friends, until you get to the point where all that is left is your co-workers, and in my case most of them are young enough to have been my children. So the chances of being introduced to someone through my work is nearly nil.

During this pandemic most options to meet people outside of work are not available. So I have been forced to turn to the dating sites, which I have discovered fall into one of two categories, either a waste of time (too many women with way too many red flags) or a waste of money (where I live the population is not large enough to justify that expense).

I would not consider a long-distance relationship, tried that once and it failed spectacularly. My family all lives a significant distance away so they can't help. We couldn't even be together at Christmas, so for the first time ever I did not put up a tree...there was no point. This has started to affect my sleep, it's that bad, but I won't take any kind of sleep aids.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.  I can't take much more of this.