Dear Queenie,
My niece was always one of the popular girls while my daughter was a “plain Jane brain” – good grades but not good-looking.
My niece stayed here on the island waiting for her boyfriend to come home from college, but when he did it was with another girl that he met while he was away at school.
My daughter went away to college and when she came back we almost didn’t recognise her, she had changed so much. She lost weight, let her hair grow long, and started wearing contact lenses instead of glasses.
Now my niece and her mother aren’t speaking to me or my daughter and we have heard that they are bad-mouthing us behind our backs.
Queenie, what have we done wrong and how can we fix it?—Cold-shouldered
Dear Cold-shouldered,
Apparently your niece and her mother are suffering from her rejection by her boyfriend and are jealous of your daughter’s transformation, which probably is “rubbing salt into their wounds.” They are more to be pitied than criticised.
At the very least treat them graciously and try to be sympathetic. They probably need all the support they can get right now.
