Act To Turn Off Junk-Mail Spigot

Dear Ann Landers: My father-in-law passed away four years ago. My mother-in-law passed away a year later. After they died, we had their mail forwarded to our home, 1,700 miles away.

We have moved three times since we made that request, and the mail keeps following us. It has become a real nuisance. We receive approved credit card applications at least 15 times a month in my in-laws’ names. We get magazines with bills that follow, along with hospital and medical bills for services done after my parents died. (My father-in-law apparently had gall bladder surgery a year after he passed away.)

The final straw came today when we saw this in our mail: “Your psychic friend has an important message for you. Find out what special events your future holds. You will find the love you seek. You will get a new job or a promotion. You will receive money soon. Just call 1-900-etc. Only $3.89 per minute.”

Apparently, this psychic has a short in the wiring. - Kingsville, Texas

Dear King: A short in the wiring and a bat in the belfry. Meanwhile, if you want to put a stop to the junk mail, send a letter to: Mail Preference Service Direct Marketing Association, P.O. Box 9008, Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735. Be sure to print or type your parents’ names and full address, including zip code.

Dear Ann Landers: You asked for letters about “how we met.” Here’s mine.

I was living in Chicago when my wife passed away. I buried her in Houston where we owned a grave site I had purchased when we lived there.

In 1957, I took a two-week vacation and came to Houston to see my children and grandchildren. While there, I went to the cemetery to visit my wife’s grave. That same day, R.H. Cullen, a great Houston philanthropist, had passed away and was being buried close by. I was unable to leave the cemetery because several cars were parked all around mine. I decided to sit down and wait until they left.

While sitting there, I noticed a woman watering a grave close by. She said, “It looks like we’re here for a while.” We started to talk, and I learned that when I lived in Houston, we went to the same church. We both had attended the same wedding but had not met. I asked for her phone number, and we made a date to go to church together and then have lunch. When I returned to Chicago, I phoned her and said I missed her and asked her to marry me. She said she’d think about it and call me back. It didn’t take her long. It didn’t take me long, either. I went to Houston the following weekend, and we were married.

I retired in 1969, and my wonderful wife and I traveled the world together, loving every day of it. We’ve had 38 wonderful years together and agree that it all had to have been arranged by the good Lord. - J.A.E., Houston

Dear Houston: It’s always a joy to get letters from people who have had good fortune and appreciate it. Thank you for sharing your heartwarming history.

Dear Ann: Your “Gem of the Day” that said, “A conservative is a liberal who has been arrested” is backward. It should be “A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged. A liberal is a conservative who has been arrested.” - James in West Pawlet, Vt.

Dear James: Thank you - and 3,000 conservatives and 2,000 liberals who wrote to set me straight.