I am in my 70s, have been married for 42 years and have three grown children. I found out two years ago that I had a child with a woman I had dated 10 years before I met my wife.

Dear Annie: Every summer for the past 15 years, my mother has insisted on driving 1,500 miles to spend 10 days with me. We have had some really fun visits, but now she is 88 years old and just had heart surgery. She frequently falls despite using a walker.

I’m in a really bittersweet situation. I hit it off with a friend who happens to live quite far away....

Dear Annie: My co-worker, “Jane,” is the front-desk person and has a bird’s-eye view to everything.

Dear Annie: I am hoping you can help me sort this out. I am an avid animal lover, and I have had animals all my life. I am now on the brink of turning 65 and have no pets.

My problem is that my friends are highly critical of everything I try on, but not of each other.

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day always present a dilemma for my family, and I was hoping you and your readers could offer some advice.

My three siblings and I are in a terrible situation right now over our 88-year-old mother.

My husband has a friend, “Ralph,” who is half his age and was recently married. Ralph’s wife, “Katherine,” is always texting my husband, and not me, to make plans to go out to eat.

Dear Annie: My best friend and I agree on almost everything, but something has come up that has caused us to argue, and we decided to turn to you for advice. We both have children who are in their first year of high school, and when they graduate they want to go to college.

Dear Annie: I am feeling so conflicted. My niece, “Melanie,” is getting married in June.

Dear Annie: My oldest sister has five grown children. Four live out of town, and one lives with his mother. My sister has never been able to stand up for herself very well.

Dear Annie: I am trying to decide if I should print out the following letter and give it to my wife. What do you think?

Dear Annie: For the past four years, I have taken a yoga class at our local senior center.

Dear Annie: Usually active and energetic, I will be turning 80 in the spring. How I dread that birthday! Once my favorite season, spring now haunts me.

Dear Annie: I enjoy my job, but I’m not satisfied.

Dear Annie: My family is dealing with an aging mother.

It has become quite obvious that our kids’ generation is totally consumed with a certain famous coffee brand. I like to refer to it as “Fancypants Coffee.”

Dear Annie: I recently went no-contact with my father. We had a tumultuous relationship when I was growing up because of his struggle with mental illness.

Dear Annie: I’ve noticed that these days, people say “I love you” almost as a way of saying goodbye to friends or “see you later.”

Dear Annie: I’ve been suffering from various symptoms of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder since I was about 11 years old.

How do you politely handle “the talkers”? There seem to be a lot of them out there.

Dear Annie: Our 28-year-old grandson is marrying his college girlfriend, whom we have known for over seven years.

Dear Annie: My employer is conducting a weight-loss incentive program for the month of April. Whoever loses the most weight gets a $250 gift card.

Dear Annie: I care for my brother-in-law, “Steve,” but both he and his wife, “Tracy,” are a tad egotistical -- your classic know-it-all types, the kind of people most can handle only in small doses.

Dear Annie: I love learning languages. I grew up with immigrant parents who spoke their native language to me, and I studied another language in high school. I’m also a native English speaker. I wouldn’t say I’m trilingual, but I can get by in those two languages I’ve learned aside from English.

I have a 75-year-old uncle who recently retired.

Dear Annie: My husband and I own a second home. Our daughter, her boyfriend and their two small children live in that house and pay us rent.

Dear Annie: My daughter and daughter-in-law had a close relationship and worked together for a social networking business.

Dear Annie: We often invite my brother-in-law to share dinner with us. He lives alone across the street and seems to enjoy the food when he comes over.

Dear Annie: I am a woman in my late 30s marrying the woman of my dreams this fall.

Dear Annie: I’m a happily married almost-70-year-old woman who has been sorting and purging the contents of boxes in my attic in preparation for downsizing.

Dear Annie: As long as I can remember, my parents have controlled the majority of my actions.

She tells me that I help, but I feel lost because even though she’s been sober for months, her anger is still the same.

I received a great deal of helpful feedback for “Heartbroken on Valentine’s Day.” Thank you to everyone who wrote in.

My question is about the fact that they never bring anything, such as a bottle of wine, and they have never invited us out to dinner or to have dinner at their home.

I read your response to “Loving Mother,” whose children bought her gift cards to clothing stores rather than generic, credit card-type gift cards.

Dear Readers: Spring is a beautiful season full of new beginnings. The hibernating animals come out of their slumber to play.

I am an officer in an old but still active community cemetery with graves dating back to at least the 1800s and with plenty of available space.

Dear Annie: My sister “Katy” is 10 years older than I and has never married or had children. She was a devoted and loving auntie to my kids when they were young, but they have grown up and don’t hang with her much anymore.

Dear Annie: You always give thoughtful advice, and I would appreciate your opinion. My husband of 20 years, “Earl,” can be friendly when he wants to be.

Dear Annie: I work in the summer at an art college, with a program for high schoolers who want to take classes for college credit.

Dear Annie: I have four cousins, whom I love a lot. There’s “Piper,” the eldest at 10, with whom I connect on a social and BFF level.

Dear Annie: Is it considered old-fashioned to send an actual thank-you note by mail these days?

Dear Annie: My husband and I have been married for 48 years. We have endured really expensive medical issues over the past several years, and our funds are stretched to the limit.

At my job, I’m the newbie on the team. The others I work with seem to know one another well, and they chat and make jokes in the office all the time.

Dear Annie: Lately, I’ve been reading that people aren’t getting enough vitamin D.

Dear Annie: I work in the service department office at a car dealership.

Dear Annie: My new rescue dog is rather skittish.

Dear Annie: I am a member of a small Midwestern church and in the choir.

Dear Annie: I’m in my 20s, and I just recently had a facial for the first time.

Dear Annie: I saw the advice about tipping a hairdresser and the shampoo person.

Dear Annie: I like doing kind things for people. It makes me feel good.

Dear Annie: Recently, my father-in-law retired. This has made my mother-in-law a different, not-so-kind person. She has always confided in me her worries about many different subjects, and I have always been honest but considerate of her very touchy emotions.

Dear Annie: I was recently on a cross-country flight, and the person in front of me reclined her seat all the way for the entire flight.

Dear Annie: My companion and I recently went to a very popular play that had no intermission. We were sitting in the first row of the balcony seats, and there was a short wooden wall in front of us to keep things from falling over the edge. But the result was that there was no room to move my feet and legs.

Dear Annie: I pride myself on being an empathetic person. I’m known in my friend group and family as a person who “has it together” and is a comforting shoulder to lean on.

Dear Annie: Our beautiful 44-year-old daughter is making plans to be married for the third time.

Dear Annie: I just adopted a dog who’s quite overweight. Right now, he’s about 24 pounds, and the vet wants him to be about 17 to 18 pounds.

Dear Annie: I enjoy my job, but my boss is a bit hit-or-miss. Sometimes he’s very friendly with me, whereas other times, he’s blunt and unforgiving.

Dear Annie: “Jeremy” and I have known each other for a few years and hung out as friends in group settings. Last year, he moved to my neighborhood, and we started occasionally grabbing a drink after work or carpooling to mutual friends’ things together.

Dear Annie: I'm wondering whether you could weigh in on a disagreement my wife and I have.

Dear Annie: For the past few years at our summer holiday party, a family friend has taken to inviting his own guests without my knowledge.

Dear Readers: The letter from a woman who is thinking about walking out on her 40-year marriage struck a chord, and many of you thought my suggestion of marriage counseling was the wrong advice, even though I said that if the counseling proved fruitless, she would know what to do.

Dear Annie: I have a friend, “Sarah,” who openly admits to having obsessive-compulsive disorder but isn’t receiving any kind of treatment for it.

Dear Annie: My husband and I both have adult kids from our prior lives.

Dear Annie: I’m a freshman in high school, and I’m starting to make friends. I’m always trying to be silly with them. I guess I enjoy the validation when they laugh. But I don’t want to be seen as too crazy or immature.

My 25-year-old son, “Andy,” has been dating “Cassie” for a year and a half.

Dear Annie: I know that I am very lucky to have a pair of active in-laws who love their children and grandchildren.

Dear Annie: With Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day coming soon, I would like to make a suggestion to children who send gift cards to their mothers or fathers.

Dear Annie: Can hoarding be cured? If not, I’ve reached the end of my rope.

Dear Annie: Each Valentine’s Day, I am filled with incredible sadness. Two years ago, my husband and I were expecting our first baby girl.

Dear Annie: I’m hoping to adopt a small dog soon, and obviously, my apartment needs to be prepared.

Dear Annie: I have been married for 25 years. My husband grew up in a foreign country and has been drinking alcohol his whole life. He drinks beer the way I drink water.

Dear Annie: I’ve been seeing this woman for about a month.

Dear Annie: I am a 25-year-old woman with an embarrassing problem: I blush easily — like, really easily.

Dear Annie: My husband and I had a wonderful relationship, and he was a great man.

Dear Annie: I’m a 74-year-old single man who has never been in circulation.

Dear Annie: I moved four months ago, and there are still boxes and bags waiting to be unpacked.

Dear Annie: I’m writing to you about something that I’m not sure is a problem.

Dear Annie: I am extremely disappointed and saddened by your advice to “Sad in Wisconsin,” whose son’s family does not acknowledge the gifts “Sad in Wisconsin” gives.

Dear Annie: The subject of intimacy involves almost everyone, especially couples, so I’m writing to you not necessarily for advice but in hopes of finding out whether other women relate at all to my observations and suggestions about intimacy.

Dear Annie: At what point does a child quit trying to have a relationship with her mother? Is it natural for a mother to have to call her firstborn every single time before she calls another child?

Dear Annie: I have been married to the same man for almost 40 years. We have two beautiful children, who have happy lives and their own careers and families.

Dear Annie: A few months back, I mentioned to my husband that I wish the style of men in suits and hats would come back.

Dear Annie: Have things changed since I was dating, which was a long time ago? Does the male still pick up the check, or is the female also paying sometimes?

Dear Annie: I just received an invitation to a wedding that I’ve been told will be lavish.

Dear Annie: My husband of two years was divorced from his ex six years ago. They had no children.

Would you please remind people to call and ask before they donate items to charity, animal shelters, nursing homes and thrift stores?

Dear Annie: I am 75 and in a great relationship with a wonderful man of 83. He is a widower after 57 years of marriage.

Dear Annie: We live in Florida, and my sister and brother-in-law are coming today. They will be here for six months and are expecting us to pick them up from the airport later.

Dear Annie: There is an issue that has been going on for quite some time now, and I don’t know what to do.

Dear Annie: My boyfriend, “Mark,” can be a sore loser, and it’s beginning to ruin game night.

Recently, you published a letter from someone whose good friend was being abused by a girlfriend physically, verbally and financially.

In the past month or so, I’ve noticed that I get headaches when I skip coffee for a day.

Dear Annie: Here I am, 78 years old, heading into another New Year’s resolution. I’m hoping you will let me share my sentiments with your readers.

Dear Annie: I have struggled with weight my entire life. I have been on every diet imaginable.

Dear Annie: The other day, my teenage daughter came to me because her good friend is being bullied on social media.

Dear Annie: I have gotten to the point that I no longer like to go out to eat, especially if it is a restaurant that my wife and I have not gone to before. Here’s why.

Dear Annie: I want people to know that depression can happen to someone even if her life appears wonderful.

Dear Annie: Christmas used to be a time that I enjoyed. I have always enjoyed spending time with siblings and cousins who live in other cities and catching up with them.

I am a soon-to-be divorced man who has suffered a great deal of pain after the collapse of my lengthy marriage.

Dear Annie: I recently went on vacation with my mom, stepdad and siblings. We went to the river where my stepdad has been going for about 30 years.

Dear Annie: My husband, “Bob,” and I have been married for over 30 years.

Dear Annie: I am writing to ask your opinion about the change in my sister’s behavior toward me. I have two sisters, and the one I am speaking of is my elder sister, “Ruth.”

Dear Annie: My brother-in-law “Albert” wants to loudly dominate any conversation by either talking about his life or showing his “great” knowledge and opinions on other subjects.

Dear Annie: I’ve played basketball with an informal team of women for well over 10 years.

Dear Annie: Without trying to sound arrogant, I am smarter than the average bear. Not quite a genius but certainly up there.

Dear Annie: I am a published author and have been struggling to write my next book. I’ve written a handful of adult-oriented fictional books. My most recent published book came out almost five years ago.

ecently, a friend confronted me about something that I didn’t think was a big deal: Sometimes I forget to respond to texts for a while, and then I reply and say that I just saw the message.

Dear Annie: When I was 10, I began asking for a phone. Every kid in my class had one, and I was being left out and bullied because I was the only kid without one.

Dear Annie: I used to write every day — mostly poems but also essays.

Dear Annie: My twin sister and brother-in-law visited me for the recent holiday. I love my sister, and we have always gotten along well.

Dear Annie: Politics took over as the main topic at our holiday dinner.

Dear Annie: I love most dogs and have had pets all my life, but there are times and places in which pets should not accompany their owners.

Dear Annie: I have a good friend who has been like a kid brother to me. He has always been a very thoughtful, caring, respectful man whom I’ve gotten along great with.

Dear Annie: The couple who live in the apartment next to mine are, well, noisy.

Dear Annie: I work as an editor at a publishing company. It has been difficult to find capable proofreaders.

Dear Annie: I am the mother of three boys.

Dear Annie: A friend and I enjoy shopping for clothes together. We always have fun.

Dear Annie: My ex-wife, “Daisy,” has custody of our two children. She makes several times my salary, lives in a home where the mortgage and taxes are sky-high, and has an expensive lifestyle.

Dear Annie: I have social anxiety, and I find that it’s really impacting my life.

Dear Readers: To all of the children out there and all of the children young at heart, I wish you all a very merry Christmas.

Dear Annie: I have an addictive personality, and this time of year is really tough for me.

Dear Annie: I have been a widow for almost 10 years.

Dear Annie: A couple with whom I have a very close relationship have recently become friends with their new neighbors.

Dear Annie: I hope you will publish this, as the holiday season is upon us and people will be rushing to the mall and the grocery to shop for Christmas gifts and supplies for festivities.

Dear Annie: I don’t want to continue to let two of my friends steal my time.

Dear Annie: Over the years, my son, his wife and our granddaughter have been the recipients of many gifts from my wife and me.

Dear Annie: I got engaged in June 2017. My fiance and I are planning the wedding for next year, in November 2019. But I’m having some doubts about my fiance. He

Dear Annie: My boyfriend is still taking his ex-girlfriend to see his son and his son’s family, who reside in another state.

Dear Annie: I have two grandchildren, ages 11 and 7, and I am worried about them.

Dear Annie: I have a full-time job, and I love it.

Dear Annie: My husband is friends with a couple from college with whom we have exchanged Christmas cards and graduation announcements over the past 25-plus years.

Dear Annie: A therapist recommended that I try EMDR in order to process past traumas. It sounds intriguing and fancy, but I don’t really understand what it involves.

Dear Annie: I love being a grandpa, but it seems all my fellow adults have a totally different impression of what a grandfather is supposed to be. My wife says I should be a role model and authority figure, which to me translates to being stern and official. Our daughter says essentially the same thing as her mother.

Dear Annie: Two years ago, I met a homeless man and took him in.

Dear Annie: I have a sibling who struggles with an eating disorder. I give her constant love and support and do everything I can to help her.

Dear Annie: Whenever Christmas rolls around, I feel sick.

Dear Annie: I was recently out of town for a long weekend with some girlfriends.

Dear Annie: As the holidays draw near, I like to be prepared and buy my gifts early.

For years, I’ve used ziplock bags for storing leftovers. Over the past two years, he’s insisted on buying a kind that has to be lined up perfectly to be pressed together. I hate these bags, and he knows it.

Dear Annie: I have not seen this problem discussed in your column and would really like your advice on this situation, as it’s damaged a 50-year friendship.

Dear Annie: I’m a 26-year-old man who’s very nice, thoughtful and kind.

Dear Annie: My problem certainly is not unique, yet I’m at my wits’ end on how to handle it.

Dear Annie: I want to do therapy, but I don’t think I can afford it right now.

Dear Annie: My daughter and son-in-law live in another state. He is a doctor, and she is a nurse.

Dear Annie: What is the etiquette with handicapped stalls in restrooms? When I go into a public restroom and there are multiple stalls to choose from, I like to go with the handicapped one because it’s roomier.

I am a widowed stepmother of a man and a woman. My husband and I had a cordial relationship with their mother. I grew to love her, and I think she liked me.

Dear Annie: I have a tricky problem going on right now. I am married and have been for a while — 20-plus years. It’s been a typical marriage, with its ups and downs, but I’d say I’ve been fairly content and things have been pretty good.

Dear Annie: I recently dated a woman for five months.

Dear Annie: We would like your advice before there is a problem. We will be moving later this year to live with our son and his family.

Dear Annie: Nearly a year ago, my sister was in a devastating accident. She had been drinking heavily.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I would like to thank all of you - my readers.

Dear Annie: Over the past year, I’ve discovered that there are some people in this world who are OK with “just getting by” with what is available — including leaning on or using what another person under the same roof has.

Dear Annie: My sister and I grew up in a pretty troubled home.

Dear Annie: I have a work colleague whose married son died about six months ago of cancer. His son was in his 40s.

Dear Annie: Ever since we moved to a place that is central to all my husband’s relatives, they have treated us as the Free Holiday Inn.

Dear Annie: I am the youngest of five siblings between the ages of 63 and 72.

Dear Annie: I am a college student and have met few people I would consider friends.

Dear Annie: Many years ago, I was in the U.S. military. I was sent to Southeast Asia and served three six-month tours.

Dear Annie: A former co-worker of my husband’s invited us to his son’s wedding. We received the usual “save the date” card one year prior to the ceremony. For the whole year, he asked us whether we would be attending every other week.

With the upcoming gift season, a question regarding dollar limits set by clubs.

Dear Annie: My son and his wife hardly ever really clean their house.

Dear Annie: Yesterday my husband and I spent three hours on the road, traveling from our home to our nephew’s college football game.

Dear Annie: For almost three years after college, I worked at a science camp in the nearby mountains year-round.

Dear Annie: I started to gradually notice changes in my friendship with “Marla” while I was having marital trouble.

Dear Annie: I’m wondering whether you have a copy of a piece that I believe was in an Ann Landers column.

Dear Annie: I am an active member of my small community and have served on many boards, including as an elected official.

My husband and I have been together for nine years and married for four years. His ex-wife remarried 12 years ago, but she is not happy in her marriage.

Dear Annie: I am writing about a friend I’ve had for 35 years. My friend is 60 years old.

Dear Annie: My supervisor hired a friend for a job when there were others who appeared to be more qualified.

Dear Annie: My husband of 23 years has been working for a four-man department for that whole time.

Dear Annie: I have read columns like yours since I was a child in the 1980s and always figured, “Yeah, I have problems, but I can handle them.”

Time for these ghouls to go haunt somewhere else.

Dear Annie: I’ve been dating a gentle, kind and loving man for a while. He goes to church, constantly reads his Bible and plays Christian music. We get along great.

Dear Annie: I’ve always been great at gift-giving. I enjoy giving others things that they will thoroughly enjoy.

Dear Annie: I am still in high school, meaning that having an interconnected friend group is very important.

Dear Annie: My ex-daughter-in-law believes that her 10-year-old son, my grandson, has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Dear Annie: I’m engaged to an amazing man, and we spend our days in a cute little house with our wonderful daughter.

Dear Annie: My adult daughter recently visited from out of state, and she has developed some odd and off-putting habits.

Dear Annie: I had something happen this weekend and am wondering what the solution should have been and who was in the right.

I’m 64. I have known “Ashley” for seven years. She is a mother of two young boys, ages 7 and 5.

Dear Annie: I am in my mid-20s, and I’ve found myself in a tough spot.

Dear Annie: My husband and I have become friends with another couple from church.

Dear Annie: Last year, I wrote to you about my beautiful 35-year-old daughter and the kidney transplant she’d just received through the United Network for Organ Sharing. I am “A Very Grateful Mom.”

Dear Annie: I wrote to you several months ago. I’m “Trapped by Parents.” I have a disability that has caused me to have great difficulty in both obtaining and retaining jobs.

Dear Annie: I am writing to you about the adult son of a friend of mine. This young man, “Dwayne,” has had a bad couple of years.

Dear Annie: My father has late-stage Alzheimer’s and is in a nursing home.

Annie: My husband has adult children from his first wife. My new daughter-in-law has become quite vocal about jewelry items that I wear.

Dear Annie: I have a question and hope your advice will make me see the light. I have been dating and living with my boyfriend off and on for 12 years.

Dear Annie: I was widowed two years ago. I joined a group last year that gets out and does things together.

Is there such a thing as mobile phone etiquette? The general answer to your question is no, it is not OK for people to be on their phones while in your presence.

Dear Annie: I’m a retired man. My elderly mom lived with me for a long time, and I stayed busy with her.

Today we’ll hear from parents who, if given the chance to start over, would opt not to have children.

Dear Readers: In a column last month, I posed a question: “If you had to do it all over again, would you have kids?”

Several weeks ago, someone requested that I pose a question to my readers that Ann Landers asked in 1975: “If you had to do it all over again, would you have kids?”

Dear Annie: I am currently in my second (and final!) marriage.

Dear Annie: My husband and I are alcoholics in recovery with multiple years of sobriety.

Dear Annie: I thought my husband and I had a great marriage - until I looked on his phone and found text messages to another woman. I was crushed.

Dear Annie: My niece, “Becky,” is getting married next month, and according to my younger brother “John,” I can’t attend the wedding because I have a beard.

Dear Annie: Recently, I’ve noticed that a “friend” on Facebook has been making very erratic posts, sometimes going on religious, political and metaphysical rants for hours on end.

Dear Annie: I started dating this wonderful man. It was a perfect courtship, with the exception of some minor troubled-teen issues in his life — we both have teenagers — that he was working on but didn’t tell me much about.

Dear Annie: I just started high school, and it’s been going great, but it’s kind of crazy.

Dear Annie: My wife is a self-employed accountant, and she did work for some friends a few years ago.

Dear Annie: I wish I had listened to my mom when she told me to go to college. I was 18 and didn’t want to do it.

Dear Annie: Ever meet someone who plays the victim and always needs a villain in her life?

What’s with people saying “I apologize” instead of “I’m sorry”? The former is just used to tell somebody that you know you did something wrong. When you tell somebody that you apologize, to me it means nothing.

Dear Annie: This is a burning question I’ve had for a while. As a student, I always have homework, but should I procrastinate or spread out the work over a longer period? Both end up with similar results for me.

Dear Annie: My husband and I enjoy getting together with a group of friends every couple of months.

Dear Annie: My brother-in-law, “Ted,” and his wife decided to call it quits over the holidays after being together since high school (about 25 years).

Dear Annie: Many years ago, my cat-loving sister clipped out an Ann Landers column called “How to Give Your Cat a Pill.”

My wife and I have been married for many years. She was and is my business partner and a great businesswoman. We would not be where we are today without her business acumen, drive and determination.

Dear Annie: I live in a neighborhood with two non-state-maintained roads. One is a long, straight, steep hill with about 20 residences. My neighbor “Sally” lives in the middle of the hill. She lets her pets roam free in her yard and has toddler grandchildren.

I have been at my job for almost 12 years. About three years ago, I met a girl who had recently started working there.

Dear Annie: I go to school and often see some of my classmates who are considered “popular” teasing my classmates and friends.

My wife has been guarding her phone since I found out she had been texting a guy she first claimed was a childhood friend.

Dear Annie: I have been overweight my entire life. Because of a diabetes scare a couple of years ago, I lost 50 pounds, primarily through running and modifying my diet.

Dear Annie: My husband of over 30 years is a great person, successful and well-educated. I love him dearly except for one annoying thing. He draws on people’s photos in magazines and newspapers.

Dear Annie: Next month, I’m moving into an apartment that’s smaller than my current one. So in the meantime, I’ve been going through all of my stuff, trying to purge anything I don’t use.

Dear Annie: My husband and I have been married for seven years. Having both been married and divorced before, we committed and agreed before we married that the words “separation” and “divorce” would never be discussed in our future.

Dear Annie: I have a dear friend who lives nearby, but for some reason, he will not contact me.

Dear Annie: I’m an old guy with some advice for other older people in the workforce.

Dear Annie: I have been married for one year to a classmate whom I reconnected with at our 50th high school class reunion. While he was courting me, he seemed perfect.

I am always fascinated to hear diametrically opposed yet equally valid viewpoints. Such was the case with the following two letters, which appeared in my inbox on the same day in response to “Undecided in Ohio,” who isn’t sure whether she wants kids. Read on. ...

Dear Annie: My husband and I have four young children. Generally, our children are well-behaved; however, sometimes they don’t listen to me or my husband.

Dear Annie: During the past year, I have had some health issues that have required that I stay in a hospital and then a nursing facility for several months.

Dear Annie: I have a problem with my brother, “Josh.” Josh seems to want to cut me and our mom out of his life.

Dear Annie: OK, I realize there are innumerable insurmountable, earth-shaking universal problems in our world.

Dear Annie: You recently wrote that an adult daughter was wrong to discard her mother’s pantry food without asking her first — even food that had expired.

A couple of years ago, when I was starting a business, a friend put me in touch with her friend “Margaret,” who had just started her own boutique marketing and public relations firm.

Dear Annie: I was recently shopping in a department store, when I heard the very loud screams of a child. Because the screaming was so abnormal, I wanted to seek the child out to see what was causing it.

Dear Annie: I read your column daily, but this is my first time writing to you.

Dear Annie: Next month, I will be moving into my boyfriend’s apartment, which he shares with two other guys.

Dear Annie: I need advice regarding a recent nanny experience.

Dear Annie: I’m writing about my 53-year-old stepson, “Sam.” I helped to raise Sam starting when he was 11.

Dear Annie: I’m worried that my boyfriend is abusing his prescription drugs.

Dear Annie: I’m not writing in about any problem you can solve. This letter is about a much bigger problem — namely, the state of the world today.

I have been trying to decipher my recent bad feelings toward a friend who is much wealthier than I am.

Dear Annie: It’s important to have etiquette on the phone, no matter to whom you are speaking.

Dear Annie: My best friend’s 20-something-year-old stepdaughter, “Tina,” unsuccessfully attempted to seduce my husband of 25 years, “Brad.”

Dear Annie: As a college student with no job, I made the foolish decision to sign a lease with a friend to move in together.

Dear Annie: I am seeking some advice. I have a disability, and my place of employment is discriminating against me based on that disability.

Dear Annie: I am married to a man with two children from a previous marriage.

Dear Annie: I hope you can offer a solution to my dilemma.

Dear Annie: My family (my husband, our young kids and I) vacations with two other families once or twice a year.

A man who extends his hand demanding a handshake is presumptuous and arrogant.

Dear Annie: I know I am stuck in the “old ways,” but I am trying to adapt to changing times. It is becoming very common for couples to live together before marriage.

Dear Annie: I have a friend, “Rosie,” who kicked me out to the curb (metaphorically speaking) when her sister moved into her mobile home park.

Dear Annie: My granddaughter, “Melanie,” thinks that she has a half-sister 24 years younger.