DEAR ABBY: The other day I went to the pool in my neighborhood and found there were four lounge chairs with towels on them indicating they were “reserved.” They are the best chairs in the pool area because they are covered by a small roof and protected from the sun. I then had to use another chair that only partially covered me.
It wasn’t until three hours later, when I was about to leave, that a couple carrying party items showed up to claim the chairs. Would it have been OK to move the “reserved” chairs to another area and put mine under the roof, and then put them back when I leave? What if the people come and I’m still there? — ALL WET IN FLORIDA
DEAR ALL WET: What those neighbors did was rude. Yes, it would have been OK for you to sit in the shade, protected from the sun. If the entitled folks who tied up the chairs (for hours) came down to use them within 15 minutes, you could have moved. But under the circumstances, you should not have given up yours.
DEAR ABBY: Please urge your readers to turn off their TVs and shut off their phones. My husband died while we were celebrating our 45th wedding anniversary. He was watching a TV program I didn’t care for, so I went in the other room to watch something else. I fell asleep, and when I went back into his room at the resort, he was dead.
I’m having a hard time forgiving myself for not staying and watching it with him. How I wish we had turned the TV off and just talked that night — talked about everything that had happened since we met, the things we did right and the things we did wrong. I wish we had stayed awake and talked until he took his last breath.