Dear Queenie,
Some of my relatives are very much overweight – I mean FAT FAT FAT! It has happened that when they visited us the chairs they sat on were damaged so badly they had to be repaired or even replaced, but they never seem to notice, let alone offer to pay for the damage (the chairs weren’t cheap ones!). They could even get hurt if a chair collapsed under their weight.
Queenie, how do we protect them and our furniture without offending them?—Worried hostess
Dear Hostess,
I suggest you invest in some extra-sturdy chairs for these people to use when they visit you. Tell them you bought the chairs especially for them so they would be as comfortable as possible.
If they catch on to what you really mean and get vexed, that is their problem, not yours. It is only good manners to cater to your guests’ special needs and if they do not like having attention drawn to their “special need” perhaps they should try to do something about it (if they can – it could be a symptom of some medical problem you do not know about. But as I said ...).
