Seein' as you asked....

The companion.

First spend a long, long time on your own, content in your conviction that this state suits you best.

Then make a huge life change; move house, area, way of living.

Become happier in your new life than you ever dreamt possible.

From this position of happiness, have a chance encounter with a man planting a hedge, who agrees to help with your garden. A nice man, who likes to talk over coffee, take photographs, discuss music and books, and who - as the Lovely Son puts it - has lived life.

Gradually realise that this nice man is actually rather more than nice, and spend a month becoming good friends, talking more than gardening, spending more hours in coffee shops, talking and laughing, than in (the now somewhat urgent) shopping for stone slabs for the garden path.

After a month, full life histories exchanged, acknowledge that more than nice has moved to more than good friends, and start talking about the future, making plans that extend beyond hardy perennials, and what climbers to train up the linhay wall.

To love and be loved; what could be better?