Dear Helen: I’m a really good writer. Not the Great American Novel kind of writer, but a knock out answers on a job application, write a cover letter that’ll land a job interview, kind of good. Over the years I have helped friends get jobs and then their children with college essays. I’ve learned to…
Dear Helen: Recently the sister-in-law of a good friend/neighbor woke up (in L.A.), did her morning rituals, went to work, and while seated at her desk in the shop she and her husband owned, was struck by a truck doing 90 miles an hour that plowed into their new building, seriously injuring her and three…
Dear Helen: I’m in my 70s and reasonably well off. I don’t have family whom I feel a need to subsidize with my assets after my demise. I’m not a grinch, but the mishpoche are already well off. I’ve begun thinking about death more lately, after a brush with cancer. I am in remission and…
Dear Helen: I’m 63. My friends range from early 40s to late 70s. In the 60+, I’m beginning to see signs of mental decay. Not so much the common or occasional forgetfulness about appointments or phone numbers but what seem like bigger chunks of their brains becoming less reliable. I don’t know whether to say…
Dear Helen: I recently broke up with my boyfriend of five years. We met freshman year, dated all through college and the first year of relocation and jobs. We lived together for the last two. I got a big promotion and he was in a dead-end job. I watched him become increasingly depressed, angry, jealous…
Dear Helen: I’m once divorced, then single six years after another long-term relationship in which I repeated all the mistakes of my first. Now that I’ve taken the time to do my emotional homework, I’m ready for something healthier and happier. I’ve made “The List” for what I want in my next (and hopefully last)…
Dear Helen: I’ve been asked to give the keynote at my son’s small liberal arts college graduation. I’m not shy, but I’m just a software game designer whose app went viral. Can you get me started? Non-Dignitary Dear Non-Dignitary: Experience is hard to transfer, and hard-earned wisdom often sounds like banal platitudes. But what you…
Do I give a bride-to-be the pink slip before or after the wedding? Dear Helen: I need to do a round of layoffs ASAP because of corporate budget cuts. My saddest problem is a young woman who’s getting married in two months, but whose job is on the chopping block. She’s been planning her wedding…
