Issue #153 - A Session With Skeeter

[Witch Weekly]

A young girl is torn between her love for her (scandalous) family and her hopes for her (hopefully scandal-free) future. A young lady is caught reminiscing about a passionate but ultimately doomed former acquaintance. How can she move on? A ladies' club puts their patrons in a difficult position by refusing to take an active role in their membership rosters.

Harmony Aidsworth Addresses Family Rifts, Former Loves, & Ladies' Clubs       Dear Miss Aidsworth, One of my relatives recently went through something (well, a lot of somethings!) and there was a lot of backlash about it. I always thought I was close to their sister, and their whole family. We were raised together and their sister and I had done virtually everything together. But when they went through these rough patches and I tried to offer my support, it was like I didn't exist. The thing is, these things affected me too. They are my first cousins. We are seen together a lot. I had to find out about my own family issues through the paper and your magazine! One of these events caused a lot of public scandal, and one of my cousins had to leave school. We are back at school and many of the other children stare and are frightened of me. I worry about my future marriage chances and how society will view me, but I miss my cousin. She wasn't just my cousin but one of my dearest friends. What do I do? Do I stay loyal to my family when that will hurt my marriage chances and my reputation, or do I break away and look after myself first? Hopeful for advice,       Miss Cautious and Unsure       Dear Cautious and Unsure, Your family seems to have put you in quite a dilemma, though because of their own misfortunes they may not have realized it. If they cared about you and your future as much as you clearly care for them, they would have added distance of their own accord in order to assure your peers that you were in no way attached to this scandal! Family is important and cannot be overlooked, but once you marry, the only family that will matter is your husband's, so you cannot prioritize your relationship with your natal family over your future. There is no need to cut ties drastically (which would likely offend them and seem ungracious in light of what they've been through), but I would try to do everything you can to subtly distance yourself from the more scandalous branch of your family. Once the scandal is less fresh in the minds of your peers and your cousins have less of their own woes to distract them, you can reach out to your favourite cousin again. Family never goes away, and so ties you damage now can be mended in the future, whereas bridges you burn with society may never be rebuilt!       Harmony       Dear Harmony, I had a brief, but passionate entanglement with a gentleman. Tempers flared often but in the good moments, things were sweet and full of romance! We'd even discussed a future together! After the last argument however, we cut ties. The last time I saw him was over a year ago in a dueling tournament. Suffice to say, it was an incredibly uncomfortable experience... though I felt as if there were things that he wanted to say to me, and I to him. I cannot stop thinking of him to this day. What do I do? I have half a mind to obliviate all memories of him from my mind.       Signed,       Heartbroken and lonely       Dear Heartbroken and Lonely, I absolutely cannot advise attempting to obliviate yourself, and unless the trained professionals at the Ministry begin to hire out their services on Sunday afternoons, I think we can safely say that option is off the table for the great majority of us. Never fear, however! Many strong women have felt exactly as you do now and have forded the heartbreak and emerged all the stronger for it on the other side. What you need is a distraction from this previous acquaintance. As passionate as your affair may have been, you did mention it was brief, and no gentleman deserves to be so affixed in your thoughts after having ignored you for an entire year! Tell a close friend how you feel, and let them encourage you to move on. Your friend will be able to entice you to social events and push you in the direction of more suitable males, and in no time at all you will find your thoughts less occupied with your stormy gentleman of the past.       Harmony       Dear Harmony Aidsworth, I am a member of Rose & Thistle, which as I'm sure you've heard has had quite some dust kicked up this week. Mrs. Greyback is a member, and after everything came out in WW some of the other ladies in the club decided to leave! I think they were hoping that the management would see Mrs. Greyback out, but they haven't done a thing about it and now what used to be a lovely ladies' club is looking sparser by the day! I really quite enjoy this club, and I would sorely miss it were I to leave. I've never wanted to join the Daughters of Demeter, but I do agree with the people who left. The thing is, I really don't want to be in the center of any controversy. Should I remain in the club but leave the room when Mrs. Greyback is present? Or would remaining in the club while she is a member be some sort of tacit approval? I don't want to lose the society of Rose & Thistle, but I just don't know what to do!       Non-Confrontational But Concerned       Dear NCBC, The management of Rose & Thistle has put you in a difficult position, indeed, as well as the rest of their memebrship, by failing to address Mrs. Greyback's continued presence in the club. Leaving the room while she is present may save you from any fear of being thought to approve of her, either as a wife and mother or as a Ministerial candidate, but at a certain point you must re-evaluate whether Rose & Thistle is continuing to serve the purpose for which you joined it. If respectable members are leaving every day and the questionable ones remain, at what point will the membership dues no longer be worth the level of company you are able to enjoy? A ladies' club with no reputable members is not a ladies' club at all, but merely a gathering place for women of loose morals. If you do decide to stay, monitor the membership situation closely and ensure that if Rose & Thistle looks to be turning towards the latter path, you're well clear of them when they do.       Harmony