as hard as growing old alone can be (..doesn't have to be, but often is..), being alone in a relationship is soul destroying. try not to worry in advance, and make your choices as you need to. pick yourself. making large compromises serves to keep you from being authentic. jmho.
for the reasons you have mentioned, most dumpsters in areas where i have lived, have locks now.
having said that.... i met a well known vancouver artist while i was IN a dumpster...lol.
while looking out my window i noticed someone putting a brand new padded executive chair into the dumpster down below. i quickly headed down the back stairs, and i climbed into the dumpster to get it.
what i learned... i am toooo short to get out of a dumpster. after a few failed attempts to stand on the chair, jump and haul myself over the side while grabbing and lifting the chair with my toes... i was just sitting in the dumpster on the chair..trying to solve my predicament, because i wanted that chair. ....when a man leaped into the dumpster! he was a well known artist and he had seen the same thing from his studio window across the lane from me. i just got there first. soo... yes, he helped me get out, and i did get the chair.
there are times to think with your heart, and times to think with your head. ask yourself if you are happy...are you happy right now?...and then choose on your own behalf for your own happiness.
a lot of this starting happening when we switched to systemic pesticides (neonicotinoids: imidacloprid). there are different theories about why the bees are suffering CCD, but i believe it should be stopped, and industrial giants like Monsanto should be held accountable.
takes all kinds...grin. but i'm still glad you stopped. i was tboned at 60 miles an hour last month, two complete 360's in my jeep, and i was so happy that the man in the truck behind me stopped and helped me till the ambulance arrived. and i hope next time you see someone 'stuck', that you don't think about this one, and stop and help them.
RE: If You Love someone.... Is letting Her/Him Free your last option?
i hope it would be the first option. i gave my freedom up once, i wouldn't do it again.