Dear Queenie,
My long-time live-in girlfriend had a little boy when I met her and I have come to love the child as if he were my own. His real father has never been around at all.
My girlfriend developed some serious health problems and she died recently.
Queenie, I am arranging to adopt her son, but since we were never married, how do I explain our relationship to strangers when they ask?—Still in mourning
Dear In mourning,
Tell them the boy’s mother was your long-time partner or girlfriend, or your significant other, and that you love her son as though he were your own, as he soon will be through adoption.
