Helen writes: I know you might think that we are smug, complacent and even cruel people when we ask how can we get out of going yet again on a holiday with a woman who spoils it for us all.
We were four couples who went on a holiday every September and got on very well even though we always thought that this one woman, Mary, was a little bit picky and moody. Briefly, Mary and her husband are now separated.
We insisted she join us on her own that year - she had been through so much heartbreak when he left, it would have seemed terrible not to invite her - but this might have been a mistake. Now she comes as of right and for the past three years she has totally ruined the vacation for the rest of us. She is an emotional bully in that we all end up doing what she wants each day, we divide her single room supplement between us because she goes on about it so much, we have to hear destructive stories about her ex-husband, and there are constant references to the bleak, hopeless predicament of her life. We now hate going with her and are afraid to go without her.
Do we have to cancel the holiday altogether or would that only mean that everybody loses?
What is your view? Please send your solutions next week to PO Box 6737, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin. Your replies and this monthly column will next appear on Saturday, August 14th.