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Dear Annie: My girlfriend, "Lucy," and I started dating three years ago, during our senior year of college. After graduating, we both got jobs in the same city where we had gone to school, and we ended up moving in together to save money. Living together was surprisingly easy, as we're both pretty low-maintenance people. Anyway, Lucy is a good ...Read more

Dear Annie: I use Facebook to keep up with relatives and friends, but I hardly post anything -- especially not pictures of myself. I am attractive enough, but I'm not photogenic. These days, I find myself having to discreetly ask people at parties and events not to take pictures with me in them. I will be going to a college reunion soon. I don...Read more

Dear Annie: A close friend, "Jenna," has a mental illness: She hoards. Her house would be condemned if the health administration were to go there.

I can start tracing this behavior back to when she first became a mother and discovered that raising children requires more than just buying them new clothes and getting pictures taken. She worked ...Read more

Dear Annie: I love reading your column so much that I have decided to ask your opinion on a sensitive issue. I recently found out that I am expecting, which is exciting news! However, we have run into a situation with my mother-in-law, as she is a smoker. My husband has mentioned to her several times about quitting smoking and has gone as far ...Read more

Dear Annie: My daughter is single and raising two sons. Her husband died in an automobile accident four years ago.

I am worried about the relationship between her sons, "Steven," 16, and "Frederick," 10. I think they are too close and too affectionate with each other. Steven is very protective of Frederick, and Frederick worships his big ...Read more

Dear Annie: My son and his wife have been married for 11 years, and my daughter-in-law, age 31, has struggled with alcoholism, depression and anxiety for the past six years. She's also attempted suicide a few times in the past three years. She is under the care of a psychiatrist. But who knows whether she is telling him the truth? She also is ...Read more

Dear Annie: I met my boyfriend, "Tyler," almost six years ago. For the past two years, I've been wondering whether he truly loves me. There is very little physical contact between us. We're intimate maybe once a year. If I try to touch him at night, he pulls away, even if my foot just brushes against his. He only kisses me and says he loves me...Read more

Dear Annie: I'm a woman in my 90s. My husband and I were married in 1949 when I was 21. He died in 2001. We have one son.

When it came time to pay for my husband's funeral, there wasn't any spare money at all. He'd had three $50,000 accident policies from his work, but I found out that all three policies had been cashed.

I didn't know, in ...Read more

Dear Annie: This is a problem I know my family will have pretty soon. My mother married my stepfather, "Skip," after my father died 19 years ago. My stepfather had eight children before they got married, so I have eight stepsiblings. My mom passed away a few years ago.

Three of Skip's sons won't speak to him or visit because he gave his ...Read more

Dear Annie: My wife and I have been together for 20 years and married for four. We have three kids. In the beginning of our relationship, it was bad -- and the bad all came from me. I cheated on her and hurt her. She stayed by my side, and that's when I realized that I have a wonderful woman. I got my act together and ended up marrying her.

...Read more

Dear Annie: I need your advice. My very musically gifted high school senior appears to want to go to college and major in music performance. But he is refusing to visit colleges. He won't discuss why; he just gets very belligerent when the subject comes up and won't expand on any reasons. Should I let it be or make the contacts for him and ...Read more

Dear Annie: My husband and I have been married for more than 40 years. During the first five years of our marriage, he confessed to several instances of infidelity. He begged for forgiveness. I forgave him.

Well, recently, I found out he was lying and never actually had slept with other women. He told me that he had been questioning my ...Read more

Dear Annie: I liked the advice you gave about not moving in with a partner too soon in a relationship, but my situation is quite the opposite. I have been with my boyfriend for 2 1/2 years (we are both in our late 20s), and it has recently come up that he would not consider marrying someone unless he has lived with the person for a minimum of ...Read more

Dear Annie: At age 50, thanks to loving support, I'm starting to stand up to my controlling mother. She is sweet to others but says hurtful things to me and complains about everything and everyone -- even friends and grandkids.

She never apologizes; any issue is someone else's fault, or she denies saying anything thoughtless. She voices "...Read more

Dear Annie: I am a 41-year-old happily married man with three beautiful children. I have created a problem that I have no idea how to resolve.

My youngest son, Jordan, is 15 years old. He is an amazing and compassionate young man who cares deeply for others. When he was 12, he befriended a fatherless boy in his class. "Ray" is a sweet, loving...Read more

Dear Annie: I recently was on a short flight. A young couple and their two children were seated behind me. One was 11 months old; the other was 2 years old. I am a mother of three and grandmother of six; I love kids and don't consider myself a grouch. However, I just like to sit quietly in my seat and read my book and do not really care to ...Read more

Dear Annie: While clearing out my desk and bookshelf for some late spring-cleaning, I came across a few business cards from folks I, at one time, thought I would definitely need or want to stay in contact with. But I haven't thought about them since their cards got lost in the shuffle. This got me thinking: How important or valuable are ...Read more

Dear Annie: I am a 13-year-old girl in Montreal. I go to a private high-tech school with nice friends and teachers. I have divorced parents and an elder brother, "Edward."

My mom and I spend quality time together pretty often. We go out and have fun, and she buys me things. The thing is that she does these nice things -- such as taking me for...Read more

Dear Annie: I am having issues with my sister, "Sharon." We are both in our early 50s and have always had a good relationship, but she and my husband, "Rick," haven't gotten along in the 26 years I've been married. I would describe their relationship as "tolerant" at best. Because of this, whenever she comes to town, I get together with her ...Read more

Dear Annie: My friend "Brianna" and I recently got into a fight via text messaging. She was trying to plan a surprise girls trip for our friend's 30th birthday. She was texting a couple of other friends and me suggestions of places we might go, with links to vacation rentals. The places she was suggesting were out of my price range, though, ...Read more