Editor's Note: Hundreds of Ann Landers' loyal readers have requested that newspapers continue to publish her columns. These letters originally appeared in 1999.

Dear Ann Landers: Recently, you printed a letter from a woman whose husband had moved out, bag and baggage, when she wasn't home. Welcome to the club.

After 30 years of what I thought was a pretty good marriage, my husband vanished. He didn't leave a note. What he left was unbelievable chaos and a wife who didn't know what hit her. Of course, there was another woman, and she went with him. Before he left (with all my good jewelry), he emptied our bank account. I had exactly $300 in the sugar bowl.

Unknown to me, our $600,000 house was listed in his girlfriend's name. Due to a huge error on my attorney's part, there was nothing I could do about it. My husband's $100,000 bonus from work was deferred until after the divorce. I was ordered by the court to pay $10,000 to "equalize" the divorce when he had thousands hidden away. I had no money for "asset searching" and didn't know where to look. It was an incredible mess, and I paid a big price for my ignorance.

Within a year, my ex-husband died unexpectedly. His wife got it all. Our children got nothing. She immediately sold the home and promptly disappeared.

This is what can happen when a wife is a world-class dumbbell and a trusting moron with a brainless lawyer who may have been in cahoots with her husband's girlfriend. I hope every wife who reads this will learn something from what I have written. I sure wish I had read such a letter a few years ago. — No Name, No City, No State and No Brains

Dear No Name: You did more good today than you will ever know. Because you wrote, thousands of wives are going to make sure what happened to you will not happen to them. My thanks as well as my condolences.

Dear Ann Landers: When we retire, my husband and I plan to build a new house in the country. To date, I have bought 14 house-plan books and have concluded that most architects must be men. No woman would put the bedrooms and bathrooms at one end of the house and the laundry room at the other end, attached to the garage.

If I may speak to all the architects out there, I suggest you consider these things when you draw up your next house plan:

1. The laundry room should be next to the bathrooms and near the bedrooms so we don't have to carry 40-pound loads 100 yards to and from the laundry. Don't put it next to the garage unless the bedrooms and baths are on the second floor and there is a laundry chute.

2. A kitchen is not a highway. Nobody should have to go through the kitchen to get anywhere except the pantry or the dining room. It is very inconvenient, and also unsafe, to have to dodge foot traffic while you cook.

3. We need in-the-house storage space for paper goods, books, vacuum cleaners, brooms, fans, serving platters, folding chairs and card tables, seasonal decorations, large roasting pans, exercise equipment, winter blankets, extra pillows and so on.

4. We need more one-story house plans. Many older people who can afford large, even luxurious, homes do not want to climb stairs.

I know I can hire an architect to draw my house plans to specification, but maybe this will help other women down the line. — Future Builder in Louisiana

Dear Louisiana: I hope all the architects and folks out there who are considering building (or buying) a home someday will clip this column. You have made some splendid suggestions that are worth heeding.

Lonesome? Take charge of your life and turn it around. Write to receive Ann Landers' booklet "How To Make Friends and Stop Being Lonely." To find out more about Ann Landers and read her past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

ANN LANDERS

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