Jeanne Phillips

Dear Abby: This is the 37th anniversary of when I met and fell in love with a beautiful young woman in Iowa. We were together less than a year before she decided to pursue her dreams in California. When she left, it broke my heart for years. To this day I still feel the loss.

In the years that followed, our paths crossed a few more times. Because I was recently married then, I told my old friend and lover I needed to close the book on our relationship. Saying it ripped my heart out because I knew it would cause me to lose her forever, but we both respected it. After a divorce many years later, I started looking for her, to no avail.

An urgency has overcome me now because I have been diagnosed with cancer and I’m not sure what my future holds. I don’t want to rekindle something I can’t finish, but I would like to say goodbye one last time before I’m laid to my eternal rest. Should I continue

Dear Abby

Dear Abby: My ex-wife and I have a 5-year-old son, “Ricky.” Each year it’s becoming more of a disagreement how to handle details for his birthday party. She believes that, in addition to inviting his closest friends, we need to invite every child in his school’s class.

Ricky is in kindergarten and there are 18 children in his class. She says we can’t risk hurting any potential uninvited classmates (and thereby