Dear Abby: Should I tell her about these letters from her husband?

"Twenty years ago, my daughter Tina was in an abusive marriage that ended with the overdose death of her husband. My wife, her mother, died recently. As I was going through some old papers and files, I came across a plain white envelope. Inside were a couple of handwritten letters from Tina's husband, seemingly written just prior to his death."

"DEAR DAD: You state that you found the letters in some old papers belonging to your wife. How strange that they weren't sent to your daughter. If they were intended to be passed on to your daughter, why didn't she receive them? If she did receive them and gave them to her mother, then she already knows what's in them. I think you should tell Tina what you came across, ask if she knows about them and, if she doesn't know, offer them to her."

A father discovered handwritten letters from his deceased daughter's abusive ex-husband hidden among his late wife's papers and worries about causing emotional harm by sharing them. The father feels the decision should belong to his daughter, who survived the marriage and rebuilt her life. Advice given is to tell the daughter about finding the letters, ask whether she already knows of them, and if she does not, offer the letters to her so she can choose whether to read or keep them. A separate correspondent reports parental homophobia, punishment by isolation, and seeks guidance about being both Christian and lesbian; clear reassurance states a person can be both LGBTQ and Christian, though acceptance varies by denomination.

Read at www.mercurynews.com