She is tired of going home just to the children. There is no one to bring her flowers or kiss her when she wakes up in the mornings.

Natasha Charleshas been single for 10 years and is still looking for that man who she will fall in love with and get married.

But at 35, it has not happened and she's worried that time is running out and she'll end up "a lonely old woman".

"Maybe I am one those persons who is not meant to find that special someone, so I am beginning to accept it now," Charles told Saturday Life.

Charles, a mother of two, has been single since the relationship with her children's father came to a sad end. She has had a few relationships, but none of them materialised into the big M.

"It is difficult being single because I want companionship and when the special days come around you tend to feel lonely," she explained.

But she is no longer actively doing anything to changer her status.

"I don't really go out, I just go to church and work but that is pretty much it," she said. "I have now taken the approach that when the right person comes along, he'll find me."

happy

In the meantime, she said she is enjoying her time with her children, adding that she is happy she had them when she did. "I would have two things to worry about now - being childless and manless."

Blanche Amos, 62, has been single since 1989 when her youngest child's father emigrated to England. He promised to return home but instead started a new family there.

She says she remained single because she didn't want her children to be governed by a stepfather. Now, they are all grown up and have moved out, leaving her at home - alone.

Amos is doubtful she will find a partner.

Quite a few men have made advances, but she says they are not her type.

"I really want the company but I am not going to accept any and anything," Amos says.

"I have been by myself for so long and I can't afford to pick up a man who will want to live off me," she adds.

Amos says she plays cards by herself at nights or watch television to overcome her loneliness.

"It seems marriage was never for me but let us see what can happen," she says with a smile.

Names withheld

petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com