ArcaMax

Dear Eric: One year after my retirement I am still feeling confused and hurt for not receiving a “retirement gift” from my long-time employers. I worked for a family-owned realty company for nearly 30 years. I am not a family member.

We started out as just four of us while the company expanded into one of the largest real estate firms in ...Read more

Dear Eric: I am a married man in my early 40s with no kids.

My wife does a good job keeping in touch with friends of hers from her childhood and throughout the years in her life despite not living near them and being in different phases of life.

It's admittedly a lot harder for me. I have a few close buddies that I continue to keep in touch ...Read more

Dear Eric: I’m 75 and I have a problem I've dealt with for a long time. It has to do with bullies. In school I had fists shaken in my face, I was laughed at because I was skinny, shy and had bad pimples. I couldn't wait to leave school each day.

At a very large company I did well professionally, however, the bullying never stopped. It ...Read more

Dear Eric: My daughter will be 37 in a month but has never been able to completely support herself. She has a degree from a good university but is unable to keep a job for more than a year or so.

She presently works as a restaurant hostess at a high-end restaurant. She has lived with her younger boyfriend for five years with no plans to marry. ...Read more

Dear Anna,

I’m 24 and recently started seeing a guy I’ve had a crush on for six months. We finally went on two dates and both went incredibly well. He was affectionate, introduced me to his friends, cooked me dinner, even cleared a little space on his bathroom shelf for my toothbrush. It all felt very sweet and intentional, and I left his ...Read more

I got this interesting question recently, and it made me think. And when things make me think, you know I have to write about them!

Q: How do I balance ‘You deserve zero red flags’ with the reality that no one is perfect? Thank you!

A: Those are VERY different things. A red flag, by my definition, is objective: Someone is rude to people. ...Read more

Dear Readers: On November 9, I answered a letter from someone who was trying to find a way to acknowledge her impending divorce in her Christmas cards, which would contain a photo of the letter writer and her kids, sans soon-to-be amicable ex. I made a few suggestions and invited you to lend your wisdom. Here are a few great suggestions and one ...Read more

Dear Eric: Recently, I was trying to figure out how two friends of mine, James and Jon, had decided to stop talking to me and not continue our friendship. And it wasn't based on anything that happened between any of us. But then, upon thinking about what we all had in common, there was our mutual friend Paulo.

And then I realized what must have...Read more

Liz Dunnebacke isn’t dying, but for a recent end-of-life care workshop in New Orleans, she pretended to be.

Dunnebacke lay still atop a folding table that was dressed as a bed, complaining that her legs hurt. Registered nurse Ana Kanellos, rolling up two small white towels, demonstrated how to elevate her ankles to ease the pain.

“ Mom�...Read more

Dear Eric: My son is turning 40 on December 22. My husband and I are at a quandary as to how to celebrate him.

There have been issues between my husband and him over things from his childhood. We did a special trip for his older brother when he turned 40 and would like to do something special for this son's 40th as well.

Our daughter-in-law ...Read more

Dear Eric: I've just turned 40 this past year. The last 15 years I was in a horrible drug addiction. I lied and hurt and did terrible things to a lot of people, especially my family.

About eight years ago they officially disowned me. Understandable.

I've cleaned up and got my act together six years ago. At first, I tried to force my way back ...Read more