Dear Niall,

You are lovely. Welcome to the family.

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Dear Niall,

Ann is very mentally ill. She is under heavy medication for her dissociative personality disorder, commonly referred to as multiple personality disorder. She is unaware she suffers from this. She thinks the drugs she takes are vitamins. Please make sure she takes them every morning.

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Dear Niall,

Ann is not allergic to horses. We told her that because she kept bugging us for a pony when she was a kid. Please don’t tell her we lied to her—she’d be crushed.

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Dear Niall,

We’ve never told Ann there is no Santa. Please play along and take her to Santa’s Grotto at the mall to have her picture done, and I’ll reimburse you for the photo.

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Dear Niall,

When Ann was 14 she didn’t go to a summer camp. She went to a special camp for heavy children. She never noticed, and we never told her. Her feelings are very delicate. Please don’t point out to her what the name Camp Tubby implies.

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Dear Niall,

Ann’s childhood pet, Rocky, does not live on a ranch near Ocala. He choked to death on a chicken bone she fed to him at a family picnic. Please do not tell her the truth.

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Dear Niall,

The cards Ann receives at Christmas from her childhood friends are actually written by me and her Aunt Beatrice. She didn’t have any friends, outside of her imaginary friends. We told her when she started seventh grade that they all moved to a large house just outside Ocala, and they’ve written her Christmas cards since then.

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Dear Niall,

I may be a woman of small stature who lives in a retirement community, but if you hurt my daughter, my entire bowling team will see that you suffer.