Man sick with worry about girlfriend’s health

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This article was published 17/10/2015 (4000 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: To be polite, I ate a bunch of food I have intolerance for and spoiled a wonderful evening with indigestion and constant visits to the bathroom. My new girlfriend just laughed it off the next day and called to see if I was all right. I was embarrassed by the way I changed her house from a candle-lit bistro to a sewer pipe. When I apologized she said, “Forget it. I have health secrets too.”

I asked her to tell me about them and she wouldn’t. She doesn’t owe me because I didn’t confess my stuff, but now I wonder if (worst case) she has cancer or something serious and she isn’t telling me. What if I fell in love with her and she died? One of my friends went through that and it was terrible. What should I do?

— Worried Sewer Pipe, West Kildonan

Dear Worried: Whoa! You are quite the worrywart. Lots of people have digestive problems these days and many women have difficult periods, migraines and conditions such as diabetes. I doubt this new lady would be so flip with you over a serious illness. If you really want to know the problem, play “guess” with her and ask a bunch of things it could be. People usually give themselves away with an involuntary jerk somewhere in the body or face when you hit on the truth.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: My neighbours, who were friendly but never close, have been over here pushing their political party and their candidate all through this election. We would never go to their house and preach to them.

We used to be over-the-back fence friends, and I enjoyed talking about gardening with them, but we were not big buddies. Now I don’t even want to look at them. My husband blew his stack with the husband last night and now I fear we’re going to be enemies over something that should not be a fighting issue. What can I do?

— Woman of Peace, Wolseley

Dear Woman of Peace: After the election is over, let everything calm down and then take over a neighbourly peace offering on Halloween night, such as pumpkin muffins and a Halloween card that says, “Hope we can still be friendly neighbours.” Then the ball is in their court. Say nothing else about politics unless they bring up everything that’s happening after the election. Then be glad winter is coming and you can easily ignore them. You don’t need tension in your neighbourhood — it’s bad for the blood pressure to see people you’re mad at, every day.

Please send your questions and comments to lovecoach@hotmail.com or Miss Lonelyhearts c/o the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6

Miss Lonelyhearts
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