Miserable after your kids moved out? It doesn't have to be that way

Instead of letting loneliness weigh them down, some empty nesters are finding joy in old passions and new connections

Can you dance and paint your way out of misery? Theatre artist Geetika Goyal believes so. Over the last 16 years she has played many characters, but nothing prepared her for the role life handed her — that of an empty nester.
“After my son left for college in 2014, I was shaken. Tears would roll down my cheeks just thinking of him,” says Goyal. She threw herself into work, using her pain and loneliness to fuel her art and performances. That search for meaning opened new doors. “I realised that many other women must also be silently suffering in this new phase of life,” she says.