Dear Dr. Janspire,
About 15 years ago my father divorced my mother and married his longtime love, Marilyn and together they had a baby girl, Lily. I’m 4 years older than Lily and this year I realized that I was deeply in love with her. And this is not sibling love we’re talking about here. It’s real love. Every night I dream about running off with her. You’d think that it’s weird to be in love with her now well, because I’ve lived with her for 15 years, but that’s not true. I’ve lived with my mom and I just met Lily. In fact, I didn’t know Lily existed until a month ago where I met her at the beach. We flirted for a while and we both really liked each other. We would call each other every night but then one day, she called me and told me that she told her parents about me and well, they told her that she couldn’t see me anymore. She cried for days on end and I didn’t know how to comfort her. She called me a week later and told me that he parents told her that I was actually her half-brother. We were both freaked out and we’ve been trying to figure out what to do. Any advice on how to handle this?
Thank you,
Dazed and confused in Dallas
therapy4u said,
January 1, 2008 @ 1:35 am
Dear Confused,
This is a funny story actually because it comes close to my heart. I had a 10 year old son when I divorced my wife Saiide and married Cathy. Cathy and I had a daughter, Delilah. When my son, Hussein, was 25, he was still single and it bothered me deeply. When Delilah was 15, Cathy and I mutually decided to betroth her and Hussein. They are now married with 11 children, who have hardly any birth defects.
I believe that you should go for her if she’s your perfect match. Run off with her if necessary but hopefully that won’t happen. Congrat’s on getting married! Hope you have a nice, full life.
Yours sincerely
Halim Janspire