DR. WALLACE: I'm writing concerning the girl who was 18 and wanted to know if she should wait for her boyfriend who was sent to prison for seven years. I can personally relate to her situation. I am 29 and have spent the past 10 years of my life waiting for my "soulmate." My boyfriend has been in prison for the past decade, and he still has three more years left on his sentence. The prime years of my life were spent visiting penal institutions and writing endless letters, while my close friends were happily married and raising children. They talk about the future while I think about my wasted past. I'm trapped. I've waited 10 years already, so I might as well wait three more. But after he is released, I'm not so sure he won't wind up in prison again. I see and understand the things he did with an entirely different perspective now that I'm 29, compared to how "wronged" I thought he was back when I was 19.

My advice to the young lady who has written to you is to look for another boyfriend. The guy behind bars chose a lifestyle of crime and is being punished for it. Why should she also suffer punishment? I'm not saying that wives shouldn't wait for husbands who are prisoners, because they took an oath before God until death do us part. But I'm telling single females who did not take that oath to tell their male friends behind bars, "Good fortune, good health and goodbye." — Anonymous, Rockford, Illinois

ANONYMOUS: Thanks for sharing your feelings on such a delicate matter. It provides our readers with the perspective of someone who has truly been there, in terms of trying to hold on to a relationship through an extended period of incarceration. Of course, what is right for one person is not necessarily right for another, but your letter presents a strong argument for the way you personally feel about this subject.

AN INSPIRING MESSAGE

DR. WALLACE: I'm responding to the letter from a 16-year-old girl who was being taunted by her friends because she was taller than her boyfriend. I went through high school being self-conscious about my height. At age 13, I was already 5 feet, 7 inches tall. Years later, I met and married a wonderful guy who is shorter than I am. Sixteen years after our marriage, a semitruck hit a car I was riding in and I suffered a broken spine. For the past 30 years, I've been confined to a wheelchair. You can now say that I am only 4 feet, 5 inches tall and look up every day to my "taller" husband, who is a giant of a man in so many great, compassionate ways. To me, he is the tallest and most wonderful man on this earth. — Grateful for My Shorter Spouse, Syracuse, New York

GRATEFUL: Thank you for your inspiring message. It will provide comfort and reinforcement to all couples in similar relationships who may feel a bit self-conscious about height differences. Character most certainly isn't measured in feet and inches, and your story illuminates this very well.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Ichigo121212 at Pixabay