DEAR EMILY,
My aunt is in this horrible situation, but pathetic in a way. It’s getting worse and I pity her.
She met a guy she fell in love and had a relationship with. After a while, he confessed to her that he was engaged to this girl he was supposed to get married to in a week. He told her he was only after the girl’s money and would be back to get my aunt. He pleaded with her to wait for him.
So she waited, and waited, and is still waiting. It’s been 14 years since she heard from him and she’s now 72.
Every day she calls me and talks about this mess over and over. When I tell her she’s wasting her time waiting for him, she gets angry at me. I’ve stopped answering the phone because I’m tired of it.
I hope—which I doubt—that she will get better. There’s nothing worse than an old fool.
CHRISTINE
Your letter only proves that truth is stranger than fiction.
Your story about your aunt is mind-boggling and intriguing! She was 58 when this guy upped and left her for another woman whose money he had grand designs on. But after 14 years, isn’t it clear as a bell that he stayed on with that woman despite his promise to your aunt? Could he have fallen in love with her along the way to perdition?
Your aunt was still young then, for all intents and purposes, wasn’t she? Had she already qualified as an inexperienced spinster when she met this scalawag? A virgin all her life maybe, the reason she couldn’t shake him off her system and move on despite years of not hearing from him?
Besides him stealing her heart, what else could this jerk have looted from her that has made her what she has become?
For a stranger looking in, your aunt may be actually enjoying this despondent state—acting not so much as a scorned woman, but more like a grieving widow who lost a great love. She probably believes there is more romance and more excitement in creating a cliffhanger.
You will never know, really, what happened. Your aunt, for all her tragedy, has woven a love story so perplexing, so unimaginable, only she will ever understand it.
E-mail emarcelo@inquirer.com.ph or emarcelo629@gmail.com