Sue Foley, Florence Block and Linda Gaddy are the winners of the 'Love Lessons' essay contest. (Photos by Ray Graham)

More about ‘Love is Love’ at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre

A retired payroll supervisor, a Palm Beach Community College student and an Arbonne consultant wrote the winning essays for Charm’s “Love Lessons Learned” contest, meaning they earned free tickets to next week’s debut performance of Love Is Love at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre.

To coincide with the love-centric musical revue’s opening, Charm asked readers to share their personal stories of love, along with the lessons they’ve learned about that mysterious, complicated emotion.

Linda Gaddy, a Palm Beach Gardens divorcée who is an independent consultant for Arbonne skin care and a part-time cruise consultant for Compass Rose Cruise Travel in Jupiter, entered because she thought it would be “cleansing, sort of like a release,” to tell her story. “Besides, I love the theater and thought winning tickets to the play would be fun.”

Sue Foley, 37, a student in the patient care assistant program at PBCC, said she was working the newspaper’s Jumble and saw the solicitation for love stories.

“I had my friend on my mind and had been turning things over, so I just decided to work it out in writing,” said the former film industry worker, who identifies herself as a “slam poet” and “riot grrl.”

Florence Block, who at 74 has put her life back together several times, entered the contest because she thought she had something valuable to share with other women.

Thirty years ago, she won her second husband by making the first move, and also showed courage by asking out her current beau, Bernie Belinsky.

“You can’t sit around and wait for something to happen,” said Florence. “You have to make it happen.”

When she found out she’d won, Florence shared her letter with family, one of whom told her, “Hopefully, other widows will read this and it will give them a little push to make their life more interesting and less lonesome.”

Florence Block (Ray Graham / The Post)

Florence Block, 74, Lake Worth, wrote:

After eight years, I found a wonderful guy and was married to him for 22 fabulous years. But he passed away 10 years ago, and I was very lonesome.

About a year into widowhood, I read the following paragraph in a Danielle Steel novel: “When love is real, you don’t ‘get over it’ at all. It stays with you forever, expanding your heart and enabling you to love others more deeply.”

I was so impressed with this that I read it to my new friends at the bereavement group I had joined. Because I truly believed this, I could finally be open to my future. About a year later, a blind date came along and he was as lonely as me. A week later I called him back and invited him to play golf. Now I’ve been with this man whom I truly love for the past eight fantastic years!

So if you have had real love, do take the chance to have it again.

Yes. It does happen.

Sue Foley. (Ray Graham / The Post)

Sue Foley, 37, Delray Beach, wrote

Romantic love is a gift enjoyed by the brave. To love is to be perceptive and agile, to bear witness to life’s miracles. To love is to strive for a perpetual state of openness and mindfulness, and these secrets may only be unlocked with the keys of gratitude.

I have an extended history of attracting irresistible, complicated partners whose growth I put before my own. Eventually, I gave up on love, fearful of its injurious ways. I roamed city streets, cafes and bars, completely suspicious of women I found most attractive. I was dedicated to changing myself so that I ceased to attract the wounded.

Eventually, I found my answer: If you completely immerse yourself in nature, in children, in the elderly, in music and art, in the well-being of family and community, you may access boundless love. Service is a secret recipe for cooking up huge helpings of it.

It was humility and fulfillment that intervened with my fate, and they are the best matchmakers. When your heart is fulfilled, you are granted the keys of gratitude and openness. You delight in the day-to-day, you harvest magic from the mundane. When your heart is filled with gratitude and openness to life’s miracles, you’d be surprised by the magic of romantic love just beyond your door.

I am on a frightful quest to win the heart of a very luminous, brilliant woman. I sometimes feel like a fearful amateur, but I am confident that time has served me well. I look forward to each day of joy, challenge, embarrassment, renewed pride and discovery. I silenced the echoes of cynicism with bravery and appointed myself romantic love’s most devoted and promising pupil.

Linda Gaddy (Ray Graham / The Post)

Linda Gaddy, 59, Palm Beach Gardens, wrote

I was married for 25 years and loved it, loved my husband very much. When he decided he didn’t want to be married anymore, it was absolutely devastating because I didn’t see it coming.

I had just turned 56, and it took me a long time to pick myself back up and have a normal life again. I felt like it was a little late to be starting over. Without my faith and the support system of my friends, my daughter and my sisters, I don’t know how I would have gotten through.

But what I learned was that your happiness depends solely on you, no one else. Happiness is a choice and an attitude. I think I’m younger now than I was when I was married. I’ve gotten into so many different things (Latin and ballroom dancing, zumba, learning Spanish, traveling), and have met many new people, most of whom are younger than me.

My girlfriends who knew me before say this is the best I’ve ever looked, so unfortunately, I guess divorce has agreed with me. I did love being married and miss it, but I have moved on as well as I could because I had to.

I do believe that all things are possible with God and I knew he would somehow get me back on my feet. (Hmm, what a pun, since dancing ended up being my outlet!) Prayer does work and my faith pulled me through a very bad experience.

You have to find joy within and find joy in the simple things in life.

‘Love Is Love’

A musical conceived and directed by Martin Charnin (of ‘Annie’ fame), which follows five actresses as they portray 12 women, each grappling with the emotions of love. The musical numbers and monologues deal with everything from love at first sight to the dying embers of a love gone wrong.

When: Oct. 15-18 and Oct. 22-25

Where: Maltz Jupiter Theatre

How much: $28 for orchestra seats; $25 for mezzanine

Information: (561) 575-2223 or www.jupitertheatre.org

Starring: Andrea McArdle, the original Annie, reuniting with ‘Annie’ creator, director and lyricist Martin Charnin; Avery Sommers, a Broadway veteran and Carbonell winner; Patti Eyler and Laura Hodos, both Florida theatrical stalwarts; and Shelly Burch, who starred in the Broadway production of ‘Nine’ and on ‘One Life to Live’.