This article got me thinking.... of course I posted here recently about my own miserable experience here, but there is something about this article that resonates with me. [theatlantic.com]
I'm not willing to relocate, and at my age I don't expect anyone to relocate for me. At my age we're settled with families or other ties to the area.
My wife and I started out as a long distance relationship (LDR). I don't think we would have ended up together if I hadn't had the flexibility to work from anywhere (I'm a 100% telecommute). I just grabbed a few changes of clothes and my cell modem and computer, mothballed my house and drove 2,200 miles and moved into a Residence Inn a few miles from her house, to continue the relationship (with her permission of course). We spent a few months in that configuration and things progressed from there. As time went on, I was introduced to her two children (then still in HS), invited to move in, sold my house, and made it "permanent" (in scare quotes for philosophical reasons only).
I don't see how that would have worked out if I had stayed at that great distance, especially if I had insisted she move to be near me (I had no minor children anymore, so it was far easier for me than requiring her to uproot her children in the last couple years of their secondary education, which is why she had remained in a town she didn't like for years to begin with).