Lifestyle

Dear Abby: I recently Googled my brother-in-law to see if I could find his birthdate, which I had forgotten. When his name came up, so did some information I wish I hadn’t seen.

Dear Doctors: Our 7-year-old daughter has been getting a few nosebleeds each month. It started last fall, and the school nurse thinks it’s from dry air. This has been scary for her, and I wonder what can be done to make them stop. Is this something to be concerned about?

Dear Abby: My sister-in-law is increasingly overbearing and abusive to me. It has always been a problem, but I ignored her nasty comments.

Dear Grandparenting: It’s no secret everyone’s social life has slowed down during this COVID pandemic. But what really troubles me is the state of my grandkids’ social life. It’s like non-existent.

Dear Abby: My sister, who was a bright and cheerful star for everyone and anyone, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was removed with almost 100% margins several years ago. Our family feels unbelievably blessed that she’s OK, but she knows she’s not the same. This is ignored by some close relatives, but not by me. I will forever be grateful for the fact that she’s alive and OK, but she is not the sister I once knew no matter how hard she may try. I sympathize with her, I listen, I know she struggles because she’s missing her old self. I try with heartfelt messages, but ultimately, I feel useless. And, selfish as it sounds, I miss my sister, my TRUE sister, terribly.

Dear Doctors: My husband’s office went remote during the pandemic. He used to ride his bike to work and walk at lunch. Now, he’s at his desk from when he gets up until bedtime. I read that working long work hours can give you high blood pressure. If that’s true, maybe he’ll slow down.

When the vast majority of your life is happening within the four walls of your home, every square foot counts. So the past two years have inspired some serious, space-saving creativity. • “Everybody all of a sudden was just surrounded by their environment, just sort of thinking, ‘If I’m going to be spending this much time here, I really want it to be great quality space,’ ” says interior designer and HGTV host Vern Yip. • Oddly enough, one popular strategy for creating multipurpose spaces at home in 2022 is an innovation born more than a century ago: the Murphy bed, a fully made bed emerging from a wall to instantly transform a living room into a bedroom. • New Jersey-based interior designer Karen Topjian remembers seeing Murphy beds in old black-andwhite Hollywood movies and thinking they looked wonderfully glamorous. It seemed almost magical, she thought. Unlike a sofabed that requires moving cushions and some degree of assembly, Murphy beds have the superpower of transforming a space with just a single motion.

Someday I’d like to make a list of all the things I’ve found while looking for something else. Photos I’d forgotten.