Dear Abby: Ive been married for 50 years and my husband never apologized for his affair
DEAR ABBY: I have been married 50 years and recently remembered that my husband cheated on me with several different women.He admitted to one affair but swears he saw her only twice and they had sex only once.
He says I’m imagining the other two.He hasn’t apologized for the one he admitted to and refuses to discuss it or the other two, though I can see them in my mind’s eye and feel it in my gut. At this point, I’m more angry about his lying than I am about something that happened decades ago.
Am I wrong to want the truth so I can get angry, deal with it and then forgive him? I also want a heartfelt apology.— HEARTSICK IN TEXASDEAR HEARTSICK: You do not need “the truth” so you can get angry.
You are already as mad as heck.What you want is an apology from your cheating husband, and you aren’t going to get it.
Discussing this with a licensed marriage and family therapist may help you dissipate some of your anger and move on.DEAR ABBY: Two of my mom’s best friends ended their friendship with her after almost 50 years because of political differences.I grew up spending every holiday with these ladies and their families, in addition to summer lake and winter ski vacations and everything in between. One of them is my godmother, and they both were like second moms to me.
Can it be that simple to act as if they were never friends in the first place? Must Mom just accept the change, or can she try to repair the friendships? — SAD SON IN CALIFORNIADEAR SON: When political differences run so deep that close friendships are destroyed, I am sorry to say they are often not salvageable.I am not sure that time can heal the rift when someone is so entrenched in their political beliefs that they would jettison a 50-year friendship.
Suggest to your mom that rather than look backward, she may try to cultivate friends who are less contentious.DEAR ABBY: I am a 75-year-old therapist who was virtually a single parent.I still struggle with the guilt that I didn...