Dear Auntie Linda,  My daughter and I have been estranged  since I divorced her father twelve years ago and remarried.  She chose to stay with her father since I was leaving a loveless marriage for another man.  She has refused to see me since then.  She is now pregnant with her first child.  I have written and asked to see her with hopes of reconciling, but she has refused.  What more can I do?  I’d love to see her and my grandchild.  Lonely Grandma

Dear Lonely, You could write apologizing for the pain she felt growing up without a mother, making no excuses for yourself nor blaming her father in any way.  She knows you want to see her.  After, that, the ball is in her court.  Auntie Linda

Dear Auntie Linda, My friend Tessie is living  with Joe and plans to marry him at Christmas.  This will be Tessie’s second marriage and Joe’s fourth.  I’ve seen Joe out with another woman.  Should I tell her?  Friend

Dear Friend, Can Tessie count?  If I were about to marry a man who’d already been married four times, I’d have to ask a question or two.  Nobody has that much bad luck.  If Tessie can’t figure it out, she probably won’t believe you.  Auntie Linda

Dear Auntie Linda,  I shop regularly at the local Goodwill and recently bought a pair a jeans for six dollars.  When I put them on later, I found five one-hundred dollar bills rolled up in the pocket.  I felt like it had to be left there by mistake , so I returned to the store to report I’d found a significant amount of money in a jeans pocket.  The management said it was not uncommon for people to find a five or ten in a pocket, but that was the most anyone had ever reported.  No one reported a loss, so the money was mine.  I suspect it was a kind-hearted donor.  Lucky Goodwiller

Dear Lucky,  Wouldn’ it be great if everybody helped when they could!

Dear Auntie Linda, My husband  is seventy-four and I am sixty- eight.  We are retired Military.  We built a house near our only daughter’s family. at their home in the mountains in Virginia just two years ago so our daughter could help us out.  Now her husband has taken a job in Miami and wants us to buy a houseboat to dock near them. We don’t think that’s a great idea. My husband has Parkinson’s Disease and I have Diabetic Neuropathy.  He is a good man and I don’t want to make him mad.   Need Help

Dear Need Help, I’ll be generous here and just say your son in law is out in la-la land.  If I were more critical I might say he planned to hornswoggle you out of a houseboat.  I believe if I moved to Miami, I’d invest in a nice condo and keep my business to myself.

Dear Auntie Linda,  My mother brought me a special cheesecake.  I offered to share the the last piece when she came over one day and she refused, but when I went in to get it later, she’d slipped back in and scooped the whipped cream off the top, ruining it.  Why didn’t she just take it or leave it?  Messed up

Dear Messed Up,  I guess she had gifter’s remorse or thought you were blind?  Auntie Linda