I woke up today with a heavy soul. I felt so blue like I’ve been wounded inside, and so low. I started crying and didn’t even know why.

Yet I do know that my immediate family’s fortunate. We are all healthy and isolating as directed and we are fine with each other’s company. I know I should be grateful and strong. But I just felt leaden.

Any suggestions?

Monday Morning Blues

Start with light. Turn on the one’s where you’re sitting/working first thing, when you’re blue. If the sun’s shining, get outside but stay distanced. Repeat the above as much as you can.

Meanwhile, your “blues” may also be about SAD (seasonal affective disorder), not only the pandemic.

People with SAD experience mood changes and symptoms similar to depression. The symptoms usually occur during the fall/winter months when there’s less sunlight and usually improve with the arrival of spring.

Meanwhile, the daily reports of COVID-19 infection cases and deaths are naturally worrisome, along with the restrictions on daily life of a lockdown, and the time it’ll take until enough people have been vaccinated.

There are also the demands of home-schooling of any children you may have and only virtual contact with friends and extended family, which affects everyone in your home bubble.

Yet, being “fortunate” calls on you to not only continue doing everything which you and your loved ones are getting right, but to boost your spirits with gratitude that you have jobs, can afford food, and feel healthy.

Use music, exercise, family games, and laughter as your mood-lifting tools. If more is needed, talk online to a therapist.

How does a lonely widower (15 years now) find a lost love from his past?  I know she had feelings for me in the early-1950s and I also cared for her, but it never came to be as I was already engaged to another.

I also know that she was an only child and she lived with her mother after her father passed away. And later, she apparently got married sometime in the mid-1970s.

This all took place in my home city, and after my wife had passed away. I reached out to see if I could find my lost love and if she might be alone now too.

But after months of trying all possibilities I had no success. She may well be deceased as she’d be about 84-85 by now. I’d hate to think, however, that we might both now be alone and not able to make contact with each other again.

I thought that perhaps you might, with the resources of the newspaper, locate her and allow her the option of whether she would be interested in communicating. I’d be more than happy to share all the details I know.

Hopeful at 88

You paint a lovely romantic dream scenario, but one which you’ll have to pursue on your own. It may be possible through an online search using her name and birthplace, or by hiring an agency that does the search for you. Fulfilling this dream would certainly be worth an investment of time and a reasonable cost.

This column is to help readers, anonymously, with their relationship issues, but not with matters that invade others’ privacy without their permission.

Still, I admire your long-standing affectionate memories of someone so far in your past. I also respect your integrity for not breaking your engagement to another (presumably your late wife) when you met and cared for this other woman.

What about those of us whose lives have been turned upside down?
How can we make new contacts with likeminded people in this big city?
We need companionship for walking and communication. But how do we find these when everyone’s bundled up, hidden behind a mask, yet so many of us lonely?

On My Own

Whatever’s been “turned upside down,” whether due to the pandemic, personal circumstances or both, needs reassessing by you.

If you’re distanced from your friends, be the initiator with them. Renew your contact online. Ignore any barriers that may exist from the past and just show your interest in how they’re doing. Everyone wants to be cared about.

Use your own interests to meet new people online through chat groups. Join webinars on topics that you care about. If you have time, there are countless groups and causes eager for more participation which can be done virtually.