Show KA KATHLEEN NORRIS q One n Person er Cn Can Spoil the Scene D DONT DON'T ONT YOU THINK Its It's pretty hard hard asks year old Marcella Marcelia Marcella Mar- Mar cella celia Ward when Just one person person peron per- per son on stands between you and being perfectly happy My mother-in-law mother lives ives with us and although she sherles tries rles to be nice she spoils every- every thing She has no money moncy nowhere else to go and she's only 58 She thinks hinks I dont don't take the right care of the baby she demands a lot of at attention from Andrew and me and she talks all the time I find myself wishing she would die and hoping she will and it makes me feel eel awful What can I do Unfortunately Marcella y you o u cant can't do much and even more Unfortunately un- un fortunately you are far from being alone in your trouble For most atus of at ofus ofus us at long periods In our lives the existence and demands of just one person erson just one onel darkens our whole scene Sometimes its it's an old relative as in your case who simply can cannot cannot cannot not step up his tempo to meet the household requirements and drags dragson on and on year after year stub stub- stubbornly clinging to life lite Sometimes Its It's the rich uncle who doesn't enjoy enjoy enoy en- en joy oy life anyway anyway and whose money will some day make the greatest difference to his heirs Often it is the office tyrant the man or woman woman woman wo wo- wo- wo man who rises to the managers manager's job without any qualifications for it and who upsets delays confuses everything complacently and puts all aU the other workers out of step Superfluous Persons Often today that superfluous I person right in the middle of the picture is the stepchild in a second marriage When Helen serenely watched her boss getting his divorce divorce divorce di di- vorce and thought that she would always love his little girl she didn't 4 iIII I on person erson darkens the scene realize what a pest and even worse what what-a a borel borel-a borel year old a year ten girl can be Pamela had been well schooled by her mother to believe that her fathers father's new wife is a home breaker and a gold digger And Pamela's schooling and teeth- teeth straightening and clothing are expenses expenses ex ex- ex upon which Helen didn't count As for tor those unhappy women who are being blackmailed and there thereS there'S S 'S n th un I. I S. S 1010 3 b 6 6 their thoughts as the sneaking triumphant trio tri figure goes his way with their money in his pockets can be easily imagined Yes Marcella Marceila everyone at one onetime onetime onetime time or another finds herself saying saying say say- ing Eng If U only she would die Death ends everyone's story and there are certain stories to which we want to write finis fIni We find ourselves ourselves our our- selves thinking of the freedom of the he inherited money of at the office with a rational and capable figure at its head of the relief of not having to send Johns John's first wife that enormous check every month pf of the easier asier ho household without dead old Uncle Peter or Johns John's critical old mother Courage Conrage to Endure But wiser than waiting for a dramatic drat dna matic change Is the character and arid courage that accepts the utterly and endures the com corn com unendurable As long as there are young households there will be fumbling troublesome old persons in them As long as there are rare offices at all the ups higher will step right over the claims of at faithful old workers and put raw college sons and nephews into positions positions positions po po- po- po of trust As long as girls do indiscreet things for tor just a temporary temporary tem tern loan there will be sneaks about who will cash in on these secrets later on And in the too too- common story of at divorce and remarriage remarriage remarriage re re- re- re marriage there will always be children children children chil chil- dren drifting about to come between between be be- tween the ups grown-ups problems with acute problems of at their own So do what wha t the bees do When they find a foreign body in the hive they rapidly wall it away in sheets of clean wax and go merrily on storing honey In the cells all about I Wall away your problem with philosophy philosophy phi phi- and good sense Dont Don't let letany letany any anyone one other individual spoil your life Dont Don't wish anyone dead its it's a sort of at murder to begin with and its it's perfectly futile anyway Timeworks Timeworks Time Tune works inevitable changes here as everywhere And the awful truth is this Just Justas as soon as one bothersome personality per is gone and the funeral over and the will read another shows up This peculiar twisted life lite of ours allows us only a few tew deep breaths of relief a n deceptive brief time In which we can feel that at last everything is all right and then the new shadow begins to form and Helen goes about the house busy with murder plans again That girl in hi the office Mollie saw them lunching she's handsome hand some too I wish to goodness something something some some- thing would happen to her |