Ruff times for bridge foursome

Opinion

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This article was published 13/03/2016 (3473 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: I had more than I could take of my neighbour and former best friend poking her fingers in my chest and telling me off about my daughter who’s in her 40s and has a gambling problem. We were outside in the back and she was going on yak-yak-yak, and putting my daughter down as a loser! I finally grabbed one of her big, fat fingers wagging at me and bit down on it, hard. She took her fake leather purse she was holding in her other hand and whacked me over the head. The sharp catch on the purse gave me a black eye.

But what is driving me craziest is that our husbands stubbornly remain best friends. They went out again tonight to the bar to play pool. Shouldn’t they be loyal to their wives and stop being buddy-buddy? I would do that for my husband.

Now they claim they have to go to the pub together because we can’t play bridge as a foursome. My husband said he and his friend are going to join a bridge club because they miss it. I bet there’s a bunch of horny old widows there. Yes, I know the bad word I said. I think they’re just trying to get us women to cave. Why should we?

— At War, West End

Dear At War: Don’t cave! Both of you women stay home and defend your stances and let the guys go out and play bridge with the randy widows, hit the bar to play pool, have some laughs and continue to have fun together. They are wrong not to take sides in this war, and you are right. Isn’t it great to be right? A little bit lonely perhaps, but right!

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: I had to respond to your column about the lady wondering about her estranged older brother. Yes, some siblings are happily estranged. I am one of them. I grew up in a very low-class family with two older siblings, one brother and one sister. To say they were extremely emotionally and physically abusive to me is putting it mildly.

My late parents, although well-meaning, forced us to associate, which drove us further apart. When my last parent passed away, we were more than happy to go our own ways and forget that each other existed. They had me so depressed I considered suicide, but after seeking counselling, I found out I am much better off without them. Moving on to the future and putting them behind me was the best thing to happen in my life. My guess is this is the reason your writer’s brother is estranged from his sister. Thanks for your time.

— A Happily Estranged Sibling, Manitoba

Dear Happily Estranged: It’s best for you, but you probably know where your siblings are. This woman mainly wanted to know what happened to her older brother. Personally, the curiosity would kill me, but then I have reporter instincts and would have been on the case from every direction to unearth a lost sibling.

Some people just have to know, for better or for worse. Did the missing brother end up in jail? Did he change his name? Did he move to another province, even another country? Is he alive? if so, how did he turn out? You might not want to ever be close friends, or even talk much at all, but I think it would help this woman to have peace. She could then get to know him or let it go.

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

Miss Lonelyhearts
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