Home and lifestyle Experts
Agony aunt
Katharine Whitehorn
Katharine Whitehorn is well known to readers of Saga magazine where she tackles readers' problems with her unique blend of warmth, sympathy and occasional hard-headedness.
She was for many years a distinguished columnist on the Observer and has written many books, including How to Survive Children and How to Survive in Hospital. Her first journalistic job was on Home Notes, a folksy little women’s magazine; then Picture Post, where she met her husband, mystery writer Gavin Lyall, who died in 2003. She was a Vice President of the Patients Association for a dozen years, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and was the first woman Rector of St Andrews University. She has two sons and one grandchild.
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Featured Q&A with our agony aunt
Q: My husband and I have reached retirement and are having to be quite careful moneywise. We have a grown up son still living at home (mid-30s). He pays his way when it comes to food, so we are not out of pocket at all. I cook for him (which involves a lot more work than if it were just the two of us) but he does do his own laundry. We don’t want to seem money-grabbing, but we are now wondering whether it would be reasonable to ask him for some rent as well as the food money. Read Katharine Whitehorn's answer to this and other questions
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Reader comments
Re the lady being afraid to use a bath with no handles>>>I have found that wearing a pair of rubber/plastic 'beach shoes' in a bath helps me to grip and I'm not afraid of slipping. these are light and so easy to pack.
Posted by: Heather Parr | 22/11/2008 10:03:49
I was going to give the same information as the reader Joy Fitzpatrick above. I do hope that this information can be passed onto the reader so her worries can be dispelled.
Posted by: Penny Blackbourn | 13/11/2008 20:17:23
Saga Magazine Nov 2008 page 163 A lady asked about visiting a neice where the bath had no handles. There are excellent strong suction handles which would attach on the side of the bath or on tiling spash area. These would easily fit in her suit case and I have found them very reliable. Avaiable from home catalogues and places selling equipement for elderly and disabled.
Posted by: Joy Fitzpatrick | 04/11/2008 12:32:05
