Pam Stone

My husband and I have a small RV, and last week, we drove it full of supplies up into the mountains to help the people affected by Hurricane Helene. My brother-in-law, Mike, wanted to go, and against my better judgment, I agreed. Mike tends to be very opinionated.

I might have just stumbled over part of why more people are finding it difficult to get on the property ladder. Yes, houses are more expensive, but there's another factor, methinks:

I really need your help. I'm a recent widower and nearly 80 years old. Before my beloved wife died a year ago, we moved into a retirement community as she hadn't been in good health, and we thought it would make life easier. My wife and I were married 54 years when she died, and even though her death wasn't a surprise, it has still been very difficult, and I miss her every day.

During Covid, I first ‘met' the Reverend Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury, England. It was a charming video that went nearly as viral as Covid: Dean Robert giving the Cathedral's daily morning prayers outdoors as, like our own church, his was on lockdown. Only Dean Robert and his partner, Fletcher, were present—Fletcher being behind the camera—along with cheeky cats, chickens, turkeys and, from time to time, pigs, as Dean Robert gave the readings, lesson and reflection to all who viewed online, soon to be known as the Garden Congregation.

Boy, do I need your help. I bought tickets for Taylor Swift's concert tour (and the plane tickets to Indiana) for my daughter's sweet sixteenth birthday. I grabbed the last pair of tickets available and forgot the night of the concert was also the date of my mother-in-law's 70th birthday.

Anna, at the feed store, made me laugh out loud last week. “You'll enjoy this, Pam,” she shared while ringing up my order of six bales of

Hey Aunty Pam, I'm asking you this as a woman because I figure you'll know better than me.

Now, as a columnist, as when I hosted my radio show, one cannot commit ‘payola'—meaning, one cannot proclaim a certain product or company to be superior, hoping to gain a kickback in perks or cash. Only politicians can. Ask Qatar.

You have horses, so I'm hoping you can help me understand my wife's hobby. She used to ride as a kid until she went to college, and now, as an empty nester, she bought herself a horse. I didn't think that much about it; I like animals. She paid for it and ridden it across town, but now I swear she'd rather hang out at that barn all day instead of home with me.

As I have inadvertently caused many of you to be as amped up as a Jack Russell trembling at the sight of a squirrel, I have changed tactics this week on my holiday food ‘must haves.' But I do stand by my early Christmas stollen treats and it's not my fault if any of you decided to devour them in one sitting.