Life Advice
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Asking Eric: Retirement is looming, now come the cold feet
Dear Eric: I will turn 65 in a few months and have announced my plans to retire. I have a long list of things I want to do, and after 50 years of employment and saving, I am well situated for these next years. At least, that is what my financial adviser and balance sheets tell me.
I really yearn for more discretionary time and my physical ...Read more
Presidents Day Thoughts
Dear Readers: Wishing you all a very happy Presidents Day. Hope you are having the day off to relax and unwind. Here are some inspirational quotes from past presidents.
"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." -- Barack Obama
"It is ...Read more

Asking Eric: Mother struggles with never becoming a grandmother
Dear Eric: I have two daughters with special needs. They function around the level of a 10-year-old. They are also nonverbal in public. It is very unlikely that they will ever have a relationship with anyone, much less have children. So, it is likely that I will never be a grandmother. My question is how do I deal with the grief that causes me? ...Read more
Reconnecting With Son After Years of Distance
Dear Annie: I'm a 73-year-old widow, and I lost my husband in 2018. I had two grown sons; one passed away last October, and the other no longer speaks to me. He believes I abandoned him, though we were never very close.
In 2012, he convinced me to move into a home he purchased, saying it would be best for my husband and me. Later, he claimed ...Read more
Millennial Life: Before Answers, Before Action
It's never good when you get the doctor on the phone to update you on the results.
This could have been a slightly chirpy column about how this millennial went for her first mammogram. But now it's another essay about the in-between -- before answers, before action.
Thanks to the state of our medical world, I'm now waiting for an unspecified ...Read more

Asking Eric: Movement disorder may give strangers the wrong idea
Dear Eric: I am a young adult with a movement disorder similar to Parkinson's. It causes uncontrollable, violent, jerky, muscle movements, called dyskinesias, in nearly every part of my body. These dyskinesias resemble the effects of illicit substances and can make people who don't know me very uncomfortable. How would you suggest I address this...Read more
Accusations and Mistrust Straining Marriage
Dear Annie: I've been with my partner for over 15 years and have helped him build his business from the ground up. I handle everything -- paying bills, filing taxes, ordering supplies and assisting customers -- often working 70-hour weeks. Despite my dedication, he once accused me of stealing. I proved my innocence, yet he still makes comments...Read more

Asking Eric: Guest list for chosen family dinner expands too much
Dear Eric: Christmas is a very difficult time for me, and I typically don’t celebrate as I don’t have any close family, and it only brings back painful memories. I moved a couple years ago and found a very great group of friends that have quickly become my chosen family. I was determined to take back how I felt about Christmas and began to ...Read more
Picture (Im)Perfect
Dear Annie: I've been in a relationship with "Adrienne" for eight years. We've both been divorced for about a decade, and our children, now teens, are around the same age. She has one daughter, and I have a boy and a girl. We aren't married but live a few miles apart, celebrating birthdays and holidays as a "blended" family and enjoying annual...Read more

Asking Eric: Boorish book clubber ruins the group
Dear Eric: I belong to a small book club that now comprises six older women. All of us have been with the group for more than 30 years. For the most part, we all get along and enjoy the variety of books that are selected to be read each year. We have one member who is very opinionated about everything and does not hesitate to let her thoughts be...Read more
Timeless Wisdom for Valentine's Day and Beyond
Dear Readers: Wishing you all a fun and festive Valentine's Day, filled with love and loved ones! I received this letter recently and was impressed with how well written and wise it was. What a perfect day to share it with you all.
Dear Annie: My wife, "Patsy," and I have been married for 50 years, each one better than the last. Perhaps your ...Read more

Ask Anna: Surviving a partner's obsessive FIRE journey
Dear Anna,
I'm at my wit's end with my partner’s extreme focus on achieving FIRE (financial independence, retire early). What started as a healthy interest in personal finance has turned into an all-consuming obsession. We're both 29 and have lived together the last year. My boyfriend has become fixated on retiring by 35, which means saving ...Read more

Asking Eric: Friend was abusive, now she’s asking for help
Dear Eric: My wife and I had a good friendship with a single woman, "Barb," for about 20 years. We enjoyed her company, and she went with us on trips, sometimes with her boyfriend of the moment.
She was always a bit problematic as, beside relationship troubles, she had health issues, but we were supportive, and we all had fun together. As we ...Read more
Family Ties and Financial Strains
Dear Annie: My husband and I have been retired for three years and recently moved away from our kids. Between us, we have six children, but only one that takes advantage.
My husband's daughter is in her mid-30s and has always used him like an ATM machine. This used to be merely annoying, but now it is becoming destructive to our finances. We ...Read more
Single File: Father as Co-Nurturer
You and I live in interesting times, which, according to ancient Chinese wisdom, equates with being accursed. But womanly intuition prods me (ever so gently) to believe those wise men might well reconsider after learning the supersized changes in our species' parenting roles. Women are released from their household universe and finding ...Read more

'Resisting, just by existing and loving.' Market hosts free gay weddings
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The weddings were initially supposed to cost $100 a pop. They ended up being free.
Y’all-Mart, a quarterly Columbia art fair advertised as a “flea market for Southern eclectic folks,” hosted eight free gay weddings Sunday as a fundraiser for the Harriet Hancock Center’s name change and gender marker fund.
Stoked by an...Read more

Ask a dating coach
As a dating coach, I get questions that run the gamut from first date to the early stages of a relationship. Let's look at a few of those recent questions today.
Question: I’m a head taller than him. I enjoy his company, but I’m worried I won’t get over the height difference. What do I do?
Answer: There’s really nothing I can say here....Read more

Asking Eric: Family concerned about nephew’s failure to launch
Dear Eric: I have a mid-20s nephew who appears to be afflicted with a severe case of failure-to-launch syndrome. He dropped out of college after six months, moved in with his mom (my sister), only interacts with peers via gaming and comes across as utterly apathetic and disengaged from the world.
There was a ray of hope when he went back to ...Read more
Comfort Versus Chemistry
Dear Annie: I really need help. I'm a 28-year-old woman living in New York City. For the past three years, I've been in a committed relationship with my boyfriend, "Charles." He's 31, works in tech and is super ambitious. We met in college, and while we've always gotten along well, I've started to notice some major differences between us as we...Read more

Asking Eric: Friends can’t get past differences in spiritual beliefs
Dear Eric: I am a non-observant Jew. My spiritual beliefs are very personal, and I don’t discuss them casually. My mother became a Christian. This is important because, as she went deeper into her Christianity, she made friends who shared her beliefs.
One of them is a younger woman she called her spiritual daughter. My mother arranged an ...Read more