Opinions

DEAR ABBY: I have been happily married for 30 years. Unfortunately, my wife’s family (two older sisters and her mother, who is 97) have rejected not only me, but now my wife. While our relationship with my mother-in-law is cordial, our relationship with her sisters is poor.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2026 Today is the 35th day of 2026 and the 46th day of winter. TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1789, George Washington was unanimously elected the first president of the United States by the Electoral College.

DEAR ABBY: I am a widow who has been dating a widower for the past eight years. He’s a wonderful man and the love of my life. We both have children, so we have been extremely careful not to cause them any distress with our relationship, and we have kept our home lives pretty separate.

DEARABBY: My daughter- in-law, “Louise,” died of cancer five years ago. She was 45; my son, “Pete,” was 48. They’d been married for 15 years and had no children. Three years ago, Pete met “Shelly” through a mutual friend, and they were immediately attracted to each other.

DEAR ABBY: Six years ago, at my 40th high school reunion, a few former classmates asked me about my old high school sweetheart. (We broke up after high school.) I decided to find her and located her on Facebook. To my surprise, she never married. I told her I am married.

Critics often note voter turnout in Oklahoma elections is lower than in most states, yet those critics seldom demand the reform that would do the most to boost election participation: moving more elections to the November ballot.

Hopelessness. That terrible, hollow, empty sense that makes you believe there is absolutely nothing that can change your circumstance. Notice I wrote ‘believe.’ Not just ‘makes you feel.

The phenomenon of Near-Death Experiences (NDE) is nothing new. In his literary masterpiece, Republic, Plato (428-347 B.C.) writes of the battlefield death of Er only to somehow return from the dead to tell what he saw in the afterlife.

DEAR ABBY: I am a 38-year-old woman with a 21-year-old daughter, “Penny.” I got pregnant at 16 and was very much alone, with little help from those around me. For a variety of reasons, I decided not to involve the father or his family.

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I are raising our 7-month-old daughter together, and we generally get along well. I love him very much, but he has a habit that worries me. He’s constantly on the lookout for a new job.