Dear Queenie,
My girlfriend and I (both over 50) have been living together for almost 10 years and we want to get married, but her 25-year-old son gets upset every time we talk about it. I get along with him just fine, but he still gets upset when we talk about getting married.
I think we should just go ahead and get married and he will get used to the idea but his mother is afraid of what he might do if we do that. My girlfriend and I went for counselling about all this and we tried to get him to go too, but he refuses to even try it out.
Queenie, what more can we do?—Would-be husband
Dear Would-be husband,
Your girlfriend’s son apparently has some serious issues that he should deal with, but you say he refuses to do so. He also may be concerned about how your marriage to his mother would affect his rights to inheritance of any of her assets.
You and your girlfriend should get more counselling, plus some legal advice, to help her (and you) work out ways to deal with her son’s problems.
