Dear Queenie,
I lost my husband a short while ago and I’m not ready yet to start dating, but there’s this friend of ours who keeps offering to take me out to lunch or dinner and calling and texting me and stuff like that.
I don’t want to spoil our friendship, but I really wish he’d back off and give me some space.
Queenie, how can I discourage him?—Still in mourning
Dear In mourning,
Tell him straight out what you have told me: that you are still in mourning and not ready to start socialising again.
If that spoils your friendship with him, small loss – he is not much of a friend to begin with.
