Dear Prudence

How Do You Talk to an Angel?

Our friends died in a car crash and left us their kids. What do we tell them?

Emily Yoffe.
Emily Yoffe

Photo by Teresa Castracane.

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Dear Prudie,
Recently, my partner’s lifelong best friend and his wife were killed in a car accident, leaving us with custody of both of their children. They are two wonderful girls ages 4 and 2 and we love them dearly and are happy to have them. Both of them are comfortable with us since we spent a great deal of time together before their parents passed away, but we did not have any children of our own and we are taking a crash course in parenting. At this moment, I have two main concerns. One of them is that we are not sure how to help them understand what has happened. My partner and I are confirmed atheists, and although our friends were not seriously religious, they did have some spiritual beliefs and we are not sure whether they would want us to teach their daughters that they’ve gone to heaven or follow our own instincts to say that even though mom and dad loved them more than anything, they’re simply not coming back. Another concern is that before this happened, my partner and I were trying to conceive a child of our own. We’ve decided it’s best to hold off on this for a while because we believe it would be too much for the girls (and us at this moment) to handle after such a loss. How much time does it take for a child to adjust to such a thing? Should we give up on the idea at present?

—Suddenly Parents

Dear Suddenly,
What a crushing loss for these tiny girls to absorb. Amid this tragedy, they are lucky that you and your partner are there to provide them with love and security. Making such guardianship arrangements is a responsibility of parenthood; let this be a spur to those who haven’t done so. As your case illustrates, the best guardians might not be family members, but dear and trusted friends. You now have a large task ahead in becoming an instant family and creating a good life for two confused and frightened little girls. For advice on what you should tell them, and what you should do about expanding your family, I turned to Dr. David Schonfeld, director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. He said there are four painful but essential truths that have to be conveyed age-appropriately to children who have suffered such a loss: Death is irreversible; all life functions end completely at death; everything alive eventually dies; there are physical reasons someone dies. Schonfeld is co-author of this pamphlet that gives instruction on how to explain these difficult concepts. While acknowledging people’s belief in heaven, he says conveying that to children, especially very young ones, can cause tremendous confusion. It’s difficult to grasp the idea that your parents no longer exist here, but are in some other realm out of reach. Since you and your partner are atheists, and your late friends didn’t have a strong religious tradition, I think you should follow your own instincts about keeping things simple and factual. The girls’ parents knew of your lack of religious belief and still chose you. As the girls grow up, if they develop an interest in religion, you can decide the best way to respect and foster that.

You do not mention that you are under the immediate pressure of a biological clock, so I agree with Schonfeld when he says now is the time to focus on making yourselves a family and seeing the girls through a traumatic transition. After you feel settled into being a unit, for which there isn’t a timetable, you and your partner can explore the question of whether you want to add another child and when. Bear in mind that the loss your girls have suffered is something they will deal with for the long term. It won’t always be the primary focus as it is now for everyone, but it will echo through the years. Schonfeld says that with the help of the strong, loving, committed family you will be, the loss the girls suffered will simply be a part of their understanding of themselves, and will not keep them from forging happy lives.

—Prudie

Dear Prudence: Torn Apart by an iPad

Dear Prudence,
In less than a week, my husband’s mistress will lose her home. She and her three children will be homeless, as she lost her job several months ago and has no living relatives. My husband ended their affair four months ago, when I found out. But he had promised to help make some sizable mortgage payments to buy her some more time. Now that the affair has ended, we talked about whether or not he should still “honor” those payments. We agreed that, for the sake of our marriage, he should not. I know he feels guilt over the false promise he made, but he seems to feel a lot of shame about his recent behavior in general, which is one of the reasons we are making a go of it. Because there are children involved, we considered doing something. If we cut back on certain luxuries, we could afford to at least buy her a few more months. Do we have an obligation to help this woman? Am I awful for not wanting to help her, knowing she has young kids?

—Heartbroken and Morally Confused

Dear Heartbroken,
So you’re thinking of going without to provide a financial gift to this woman who helped almost wreck your marriage. Maybe she’s a fast enough worker that if you tide her over for a few months she can find another married mark who might pick up her bills. It’s always sad when innocent children are the victims of their parent’s bad judgment and behavior. I wonder if her tale of complete abandonment is wholly true—she has plenty of reason to make herself seem as desperate as possible, and you have evidence she’s no paragon of honesty. But if you cast your gaze over our economic landscape, you will find endless, desperate families and you simply know that you can’t bail them all out. Let’s say you give her a few months’ reprieve. I assume you aren’t going to have them move in when at the end of that time she’s still jobless and underwater with her mortgage. I’m afraid she needs to start making plans and turn to the social service agencies your tax dollars are funding and which are there to keep such families from finding themselves on the street. I understand your husband feels shame, but his enlightenment about the error of his ways came about because you caught him cheating. Without your discovery, he would have continued seeing this woman, and you would have started seeing a substantial diminution of your financial reserves. I hope your husband recognizes what a kind, compassionate wife he has in you. I hope you are seeing what you have in him equally clearly.

—Prudie

Dear Prudence,
My younger sister Beth and I used to be close, even through her four-year-long heroin addiction. She has been clean for three years and spent lots of time with my family and me. Then, in January, she stopped talking to me. I was hurt and thought she might be using again. Last week when my parents talked to her about our frayed relationship she told them my husband tried to rape her one night when I was away on business. Beth’s story has several holes. She claims to have scratched him while fighting him off, but when I came home the next day my husband did not have any marks on his body. Beth said she stopped by to say hello to our kids, but she came by at 10 p.m., long after they were in bed. Beth has stolen from me and lied to me in the past, although nothing she has done has ever been as serious as accusing my husband of attempted rape. My husband denies her story. He said she came over to drop off some clothing she borrowed and left without incident. They have always been friends, and he is blindsided by her accusations. Beth does not want to press charges but says she can no longer be a part of my life if I am married to my husband. I have many reasons to disbelieve Beth, but it breaks my heart to think she would lie about something so terrible. She has been using again, too, because she says she is so upset about what my husband did. What should I do?

—Come Clean

Emily Yoffe sat down with Jacob Weisberg at 92YTribeca for an interview on April 23.

Dear Clean,
Surely you understand that first came the needle in the arm, then came the fantasia about the precipitating incident that caused her to stick it there. Your addict sister has stolen from you before. But those were tangible goods. Now, in order to excuse her inability to stay clean, she’s stolen your peace of mind. I agree her story is implausible. But what’s believable is that she’s so ashamed of her condition that she’d rather make false accusations against her brother-in-law than own up to her own failings. But she’s a junkie, so it’s to be expected. Your sister is a sick woman. I think what you should do is support your parents in trying to persuade her to yet again go into rehab. But you want to stay away from someone who would threaten your husband’s freedom because of her need for a fix.

—Prudie

Dear Prudence,
I told my husband that it is unnerving for me to have conversations with people if they are wearing sunglasses and I am not. It bothers me that I can’t see their eyes but they can see mine. Their failure to remove their sunglasses so we can make eye contact strikes me as rude. My husband thinks it is my problem. I think etiquette dictates that they remove their sunglasses, provided they don’t have a real medical reason for wearing them. Who’s right?

—Can’t See Eye to Eye

Dear Can’t,
There’s less than meets the eye in your proposed prescription. You’re the rude one if you give someone the evil eye simply for continuing to wear sunglasses without providing you a note from the ophthalmologist. Sure the Bible contains an injunction about an eye for an eye, but it says nothing about whether one’s eye may be covered in shades. Now that we’ve entered sunglass season, you need to get your own pair of rose-colored glasses so that that world looks better to you no matter what anyone else’s eyewear.

—Prudie

Discuss this column with Emily Yoffe on her Facebook page.

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