Daughter is last to learn of new love in dad’s life
DEAR ABBY: My father began dating four years after my mother passed away from a terrible bout with cancer. He and I have always been close; in fact, I have always considered him to be one of my best friends. But since he started dating he has changed.
I just traveled across the country for a family funeral and discovered that he has a new love in his life, and that he flew her out to see all of our extended family. ... When I expressed to him that I felt he had cut me out entirely, it made him angry . ...
He told me he didn’t know why he had cut me out and ignored me. But we can’t seem to get over it . ... What was an easy parent/child relationship is now awkward and uncomfortable, and I’m at a loss about how to fix it.
— Abandoned in South
Carolina DEAR ABANDONED: Having never met your father, it’s hard to guess why he would behave the way he has. That you could have communicated almost daily and have no clue about what was going on makes it obvious that it was no oversight. Not all “children” are accepting of a new woman in a father’s life . ... It’s possible you were kept in the dark because he was afraid of how you would react.
No one can blame you for feeling the way you do. Your father mishandled this, and I am sorry for your pain. A step toward fixing this would be to try to forgive him, and to move forward by telling him you want him to be happy.
Particularly if you like “Star Trek,” you will probably enjoy Mark Smith’s two books using this show as a backdrop. The first, published in 1990, has been edited and republished as “Enterprising Bridge Tales: The Original Stories.” Also out this year is the sequel, “Enterprising Bridge Tales: The Next Generation” (both Master Point Press).
Here is an instructive deal from the second book that would catch out many players. How should South play in four spades after West leads the diamond 10?
As you can see, Stayman is used even by alien races!
South might lose one trick in each suit, and if East has the club king and queen, the contract is surely unmakable.
As the cards lie, declarer can make his contract by playing low from the board and winning with his diamond ace, then playing a high trump. However, not unnaturally, Lieutenant-Commander Dieter, the starship’s science officer, called for dummy’s diamond jack and captured East’s queen with his ace. Then he led the heart five, but when West won with the king, declarer carefully unblocked dummy’s queen.
South took West’s diamond continuation with dummy’s king, played a heart to his 10 and discarded dummy’s last diamond on the heart ace. Declarer ruffed his remaining diamond on the board and played a trump. Dieter lost only one spade, one heart and one club.
All Master Point Press books come in both an eedition and a printed version. Details at masterpointpress.com.