DEAR ABBY: Before my mother died last year, she revealed to me that "Todd," an old schoolmate of mine, told her that he had to leave the state on the day I married someone else because Texas wasn't big enough to hold his grief.
Todd had never even asked me out on a date. He hung around our house, but I thought he was just a friend of my twin brother.
Abby, please tell all those shy boys out there that if they want something, they should speak up. (I definitely would have married Todd had he only let me know how he felt.) We both would have been much happier. -- REGRETFUL IN SPRINGFIELD, MO.
DEAR REGRETFUL: Maybe so -- maybe not. While there are no guarantees, it does seem sad that a chance at true love was stillborn because one of the parties had low self-esteem. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.