DEAR ABBY:My sister “Ruth” and I spent most holidays dining out together after our families grew up and left home. Ruth died last year and her daughter “Lara” began inviting me for holidays “so I wouldn’t be alone.” I have tried to decline, but she persists. She insists that I should be with her instead of with friends, although her plans are always tentative and often change at the last minute.
Last Christmas she invited me to a community holiday dinner at 2 p.m. with her friends. At the last minute she called to say we’d be dining at her house in the evening instead, which meant I spent the day alone doing nothing.
