LW I think you should fly over there and walk into her life and see what happens. Your story is so dramatic it NEEDS closure. And I agree with Cary that the narrative hooks in your story are just too many and too exciting to be left at this cliffhanger that you have created by being single and bitter and twisted in your forties dreaming of her. This is the next step in your journey - take it! And then write in and let us all know what happens.

It sounds like in writing this letter you are reflecting on your life and have processed a great deal about your past and what it meant to you. That's a worthwhile exercise in itself no matter what the outcome. It would also be good to think about what the qualities were of your relationship and this woman that so haunt you now and to make those qualities priorities in your present existence. How do you do this? You meditate on them. You express them. You enact them. Innocence, passion, excitement - these are the harder things to rediscover and no PI or web agent can help you there.

There's a great story by Jung about the fountain of life that is found by some villagers on a hillside. They enjoy it at first, but in a while they fence it and begin selling admission tickets until one day they find ... the fountain of life has gone! It has popped up somewhere else on the mountain. Once again after finding it the people enjoy it, and then fence it off and begin controlling it again. And once again the fountain of life moves.

Perhaps your long lost love can bring you back to the fountain of life, or perhaps just in the act of looking for her you will stumble on it again. But that is what you must do. It's time to set out again and seek your fortune somewhere new. Good luck and God speed.

That's odd - the article ends saying there are five letters and then when i went to read them the message said 'there are no letters to display.' dee da dee da weird music please.

Whether or not the US government was involved in the actual 9/11 attack is less relevant than what they did in response. Which was to pursue a long held and carefully detailed Republican agenda of a neverending war on so called 'terrorism' - read our civil liberties. Liberal western democracies all over the world followed suit, beefing up police and defense spending and immigration laws, watering down citizen's rights and the very foundations of liberal democracy - the right to be assumed innocent until proven guilty for example, all in the name of September 11. No matter who was behind it September 11 was a bonanza for governments everywhere interested in gaining more control over their citizens.

The worst insult has been the way it's been framed in terms of a religious war - the forces of evil muslim fundamentalism against enlightened western christianity. For a start Jesus quite plainly abjured us to 'turn the other cheek' and I think in the case of war in Iraq and Afghanistan - both of which the US is pitifully losing, although Hallirbuton is undoubtedly winning with every extra million it makes - it would have been a far better response.

We will never know whether or not the terrorists 'acted alone'. (BTW - just because it's incredible that they pulled it off doesn't mean it's impossible. Same with the collapse of the Twin Towers - I'm always amused at a 'rational' paradigm that suggests that just because something cannot be explained it must therefore be false.) It hardly matters. In every matter since then the US goverment has acted in bad faith to hoodwink the public and create a very different world, filled with many more lies, pain, suffering, hatred and violence than previous to 9/11.

I wonder if both the LW and her mother are finding it difficult to accept that the brother has moved on in his life and created his own family, thus pushing his family of origin to a secondary place in his relationships and priorities. If this is so then their expectations are out of date and thus sure to be disappointed.

Overall I would advise the LW to encourage her mother to speak frankly with the brother and his wife. After all, if they are hesitant to accept free childcare then there must be a reason for it. Perhaps this reason can be discussed and straightened out. Most importantly however I would advise both the LW and the mother to stop taking offence when none is meant. If indeed the brother is in good faith and merely being thoughtless then hard feelings are misplaced and will only create trouble. Far better to do as Cary advises and build a relationship based on giving and listening. Rather than spending valuable 'face time' criticising, the LW should make sure she spends enjoyable time with her brother's family when she visits - perhaps inviting them out on a picnic or to a movie. Try to figure out what terms the brother might be wanting to have a relationship on rather than imposing her own.

Most importantly, let the brother know how important he is to the LW, and how much love she has to give. This is bound to be attractive. Other than that however I would be loathe to get involved between the mother and the brother.