Ignore nasty, angry neighbour

Q An unfriendly next door neighbour who has never spoken to us showed his scary side on Halloween night.

We hung a little ghost decoration on a tree branch that reaches over our property from his.

We thought he wouldn't mind a small balloon hung by string that lit up as a ghost. It weighed little and would not harm the branch which is far enough over to not be associated with his home.

He pulled up in his car and, in an extremely angry, loud voice used the “F” word five times about getting it “off my f-----g tree now!”

He walked off before I could apologize. Lesson learned: never assume. In hindsight, we should have asked.

I'm still very upset. He yelled so loud, I was frightened.

How do I stay living next to this person who clearly hates us?

Can't Sleep for Worry

A The man is rude, nasty and disrespectful. But yes, the small error in judgment was yours.

A short, sincere apology would normally be appropriate. However, he seems so volatile that it may be wisest to just avoid him altogether.

Reader: Regarding the man whose wife befriended a female neighbour and when the man's wife was killed in a freak accident, the neighbour saw that the widower was in complete shock.

I've been meaning to reply to this letter for so long.

The naive widower should've known better than to let a married woman pay so much attention to him after the death of his wife. He may not have seen it coming, but I believe it was the woman's plan all along.

She liked the neighbour's husband better than her own, who she divorced after 18 months, and had to make her move for the widower before some other woman did.

I believe her own now-estranged children know what the woman did. They see right through her and have cut ties.

I'm all for making amends and being forgiving, but the guilty party first must admit, then ask for it.

In this case, the couple both claim innocence, and there's been no family healing for her children.