Lifestyle

At 66, a Woman Who Spent Years Dating Online Went to New York City for a Birthday Dinner Date. Then He Suggested They Split a Meal: “For My Birthday Dinner, I Got Three Onion Rings”

By Mike Harper · November 4, 2026

Some lessons take decades to learn. One woman who shares her life on YouTube says she is finally done with a handful of habits, and one of them comes with a story about a birthday dinner that never quite happened.

“I’m 66,” the creator behind the channel Becoming Me (@BecomingMe64) said in a video posted Oct. 31, in which she runs through the things she has given up. One is going to social functions she does not want to attend. As she put it, at 66 she has earned the right to say no. The video follows her on a trip to “head to the beach on Lake Erie,” where she tells the story.

Another thing she is done with is online dating. “I did online dating for probably five years,” she said. One man she met that way lived in New York City, and they had been seeing each other long distance for a few months. He did not have much money, so when they went out she often ordered from the appetizer menu or paid her own way.

She tells the full story in her video on YouTube.

Then her birthday came around. “He asked me to come to New York City for my birthday and said he was going to take me out to dinner,” she said. The plan also included a tour of some of the city’s oldest bars, places that have been open for more than a century.

At the first stop, which she described as the oldest bar in the city, they sat at the bar and he asked for a menu. She thought that was odd, since he had told her on the phone that they were going out to dinner. Then he made a suggestion: “how about if we split a meal?”

He picked a burger and fries. She asked for onion rings instead, reminding him it was her birthday. He ordered the burger and fries anyway and asked the server to put a few onion rings on the side. A small plate arrived with three of them. He handed it to her and ate the fries they were supposed to share.

“So, for my birthday dinner, I got three onion rings,” she said.

She says she would still date someone she met naturally and connected with, but she is finished with dating sites.

She is in a smaller group than many people might think. A Pew Research Center survey found that 20% of adults ages 50 to 64 and 13% of those 65 and older say they have ever used a dating site or app, compared with 53% of adults under 30. Older adults are also more wary. Pew found that 62% of Americans 65 and older say online dating is not a safe way to meet people, compared with 53% of those 50 to 64.

A few things to keep in mind for anyone dating later in life:

Set expectations early. If a date involves travel, it is fair to ask what the plan is before you go.

Meet in public. A first meeting in a busy public place gives you an easy way out.

Watch for money requests. Pew found that 47% of men 50 and older and 44% of women who have dated online think they have come across a scammer. Never send money to someone you have only met online.

Trust your own pace. Like this creator, many people find that being done with something is its own kind of freedom.

This article is for general information and is not financial or legal advice. This article was produced with the assistance of AI and fact-checked against the sources cited by LightWave Reports.