Cary's right to try to develop a plan for the future so that you have some control over what will happens IF you should require assistance down the road in 5-10-15-25 or 30 years.

But it sounds like your sister is just jealous of your independence and your friend may plausibly be nervous that the burden of caretaking may fall upon her in the absence of anyone else.

As for diet and exercise-- you must be a bit overweight if these women keep commenting on it. Well, that is basic rudeness and I would call them on it and find out what they are insecure about and make fun of them right back.

Everyone has their bad habits and their crutches and if you are at least trying to limit your intake of bad fats and salt, and stick to healthy choices and a decent balance of lean protein, veggies and fiber, then even if you indulge now and then, you are still doing pretty good! I mean, it's not like you are trying to catch a husband or win American's Top Model, right?

IF you do get seriously ill, you will probably lose your appetite for several months, and the extra weight might actually prolong your life by providing a source of nutrition through the illness.

Any radical changes in lifestyle at 75 are more likely to overstress your body at this point. Try to get a decent walk every other day and go slowly at first if you have been sedentary up to now, or do that chair exercise thing with that lady on PBS if walking is a bit too much. Small changes will give you a nice burst of oxygen that will only make you feel good!

And if you are sick of the critics, say, as my late grandmother-- who recently died of lung cancer after being a very stubborn smoker for 70 of her 89 years-- would say, "tell them to go piss up a rope."

I mean, it's your life. You are 75-- there is no authority to rebel against. They get to make their choices you get to make yours.

God bless ya!

After you marry, your differences and your arguments will only intensify.

Set her free so she can enjoy the full bounty of her current income and continue searching for a sugar daddy. She will have to make her own tradeoffs along the way, as Gordeaux (the first poster) said was true-- most of us don't pick up where our parents left off. So I may add, unless a woman marries someone closer to her father's age she will not necessarily be able to pick up living at the same standard she was previously accustomed to.

As independent adults, I think we have to struggle through the lean years for at least 15-20 years (and maybe indefinitely after that, due to the capriciousness of accidents, illness, fate).

The lean, poor-but-hopeful years are supposed to be the happiest times in a marriage before wealth, materialism and mid-life crises take over.

But that might just be a myth. My husband and I argue about money, too. It is disappointing to realize you aren't rich the way you thought you'd be by age 27 or 32 or 40 and it is really easy to lose track of how far we have actually come in the last 7 years together.

Watching television shows about wealthy rappers or socialites really doesn't help, it just intensifies the feeling of being left behind. Better to try to help someone worse off, so you can be grateful for what you do have.

I think you need to find a funny, beautiful intelligent woman who is goal-oriented but also someone who can be there "for richer or poorer, better or worse." Someone who won't act like that hothead who threw a tantrum at the airport when things don't turn out as expected.

Oprah didn't mess up her own thyroid. Thyroid disorders come a dime a dozen among women in the Great Lakes region.

Just take some replacement hormone and go one living your life.

I am really sick of Oprah. Anyone who publishes a magazine and puts airbrushed pictures of herself on EVERY cover does not have issues with self esteem.

Her discounting all of her accomplishments with the malarkey about being out of control of her being is baldfaced dishonesty.

She's a workaholic who has branded herself and overeats as a crutch like a majority of people in America. Her ratings go up as she gains because a majority of people can identify not with the self-debasment but with her indulgence of her appetite.

I agree with the prior poster who thinks a new diet and fitness guru is coming down the Oprah celebrity-making-pipeline.

You have to make people first feel bad about themselves if you are going to successfully sell them anything that promises to make them feel better.

Maybe not an epidemic but this letter is far too one sided to suggest that it is normal for babies of drug addicted mothers to come out perfect.

You just disregard the child who is permanently developmentally delayed as result of his mother's alcohol or drug addiction. The child who, if able to walk or sit independent of a wheel chair, must still wear a helmet due to the frequency of his falling down (for lack of coordination and balance).

You completely disregard the two year old whose parents have taught her to inhale weed or snort coke for their own amusement.

Shouldn't these children be removed from their ailing parents?

Any policy that is racist at its core should be eliminated or made equal. Not to speak ill of the dead, but had Anna Nicole Smith given birth to Dannielynn in the United States, perhaps she would have tested positive for who knows what recreational drugs at birth. And she should have lost custody then, too.