"The love of my life" - what does that actually mean?

I was lucky enough to meet and marry the love of my life while in my teens. After DH died people have said I should move on and find someone else, but for me there can be no-one else. There is no-one who can replace DH in my heart or in my home. To me he was a very special person who made me feel loved and cherished. I find I am just not interested in any man being more than a friend. I'm not expressing myself very well but for me he always was and always will be the only one.

Grannyknot....clue is in your OP.....you are watching a 'movie'....if only life was that simple or decisive.....
As I get older and just a teeny bit wiser I realise that its what you put into a relationship that really matters. Yes your initial 'choosing' mechanism help...going for a decent person with a similar set of core values but if you are a loving, forgiving person who tries to live by the rules you set each other...then I think you will probably have as much chance as anyone who feels ( whether in life or in a work of fiction) that he/she was the love of their life.

Sunseeker, I think you have expressed it perfectly.

The one you measure all others by, even if you try not to. (DBH and I split up for a while some years back)

I don't have a love of my life. DH is my soul mate but I love my children and grandchildren deeply too - just in a different way

I always thought that 'the love of my life' only referred to a relationship that was sexual though kitty.We can love many people, family and friends, but I think the phrase means the only person [that we had a relationship with] and meant more to us than any other, either before or after.As in someone may say ' I am very happy with my second husband, but my first husband /partner was the love of my life.So a loving, and romantic, and sexual relationship.That's what I always thought it meant anyway.

I don't think it would necessarily have to be a sexual relationship, but I know what you mean, roses. There can sometimes tend to be a bit of a rose-tinted view of past as well...

My ex left me saying he had met the love of his life. He married, then left her for another - then moved on and is married yet again. Apparently you can have several loves of your life.

Has duration anything to do with it?

"The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned."
Somerset Maugham

(Not sure how much he knew about it!)

Ok - it's DH!!!

glad to hear that Kitty [and so would he!]

DH is certainly my only one and as janerowena explains it, no one has ever or ever will measure up to him. My soulmate.

I have never said DH is " love of my life" even though he is the only man not related to me that I've ever loved. I've known him 42 years.

I've always thought it was the person you've loved most. I agree that it's sexually orientated.

How weird! I would never have connected that expression primarily with a sexual relationship. I would think it has to do with longevity and an enduring affection, and passion, of course. But not exclusively with sex or a "magnificent obsession".

I always thought the 'love of my life' was the one that got away.

What always puzzles me, in this non-religious world is why people talk about soul-mates - and what does that mean?

Some people meet someone who they love for the rest of their life, but I bet they still had their differences. I remember being told the story of an elderly couple celebrating very happily their golden wedding and someone asked the husband 'Do you mean in all those years, you have never felt like divorcing your wife. The reply was: 'Divorce never, murder frequently.'

Yup!

One definition of 'soul' in my dictionary is 'the moral, emotional or intellectual nature of a person'.

By that definition, DH is my soul mate!

That doesn't mean that I don't want to murder him sometimes and, no doubt, he me!

I've never met the love of my life. I thought I had, but he turned out to be nothing of the kind.

There's plenty of time Lona - you're still young!

I have been married for 47 years but I wouldn't use the expression 'love of my life' exactly.

Too overwhelming!

My ex DH2 used to wibble on in his cups about 'the love of his life' who he had fallen for, many years ago when he was 19. I came to think rather cynically that the love of his life represented an impossible standard that no real living and breathing woman could match up to. I decided to stop trying and ended the marriage.

My DH is the love of my life now and always will be - he is wonderful and I am blessed. Neither of us would win any glamour competitions (far from it!) but he was the kindest nicest man when I met him and I've never met anyone better. He adores our children and grandchildren though why he chose me I will never know but I'm very grateful that he did. Sorry, really soft I know but I love him to bits and for some wired reason he seems to feel the same about me

Even though I can't spell he still loves me!! I meant wired not wired