DEAR MISS MANNERS: During the stay-at-home order in our state, one couple I know has been out of work (both partners). Though nobody has said anything, it has entered my mind more than once that they could use financial help. Still, I don’t know how to go about providing help without being presumptuous.
Would it be OK to just mail them a card with a check in it? I was thinking of writing words to the effect that the enclosed is a gift, and possibly adding that I could loan more money if that would be helpful in the future.
GENTLE READER: Money, however needed, appreciated and kindly intended, is an uncouth present amongst friends, Miss Manners assures you. Offering a meal and some company (when restrictions allow) would be a better way to show friendship -- without causing embarrassment that could outlast their presumably temporary situation.