DEAR HELOISE: I’ve read many hints that help when a purse or wallet is lost or stolen. Most are about keeping a list of credit-card names and numbers. This might not be useful if the event happens while traveling.
Create a draft e-mail with credit-card information - name of the bank, last four digits of your credit-card number (this is enough information for most banks and credit-card issuers) and the appropriate phone numbers. If your purse or wallet is stolen, go to the nearest library or other place with a computer and access your draft e-mail. If you can access your e-mails from your phone, you can make all necessary phone calls.
The quicker you make the phone calls, the better. If you’re traveling, many credit-card issuers will express-mail a replacement to your hotel.
You should scan a copy of your driver’s license and attach the document to the draft e-mail. You’ll be able to print it out as a way to identify yourself to police, or anyone else.
- Errol Waits, via e-mail
DEAR READER: Good advice, especially for those going on vacation. A hint from me: Before leaving on a trip, clean out your wallet and carry only the cards you will need.
DEAR HELOISE: I read the cute letter in your column today from Bonnie about love notes, and it brought back beautiful memories of mine to my beloved wife.
Kay used to sit up and read after I went to sleep. I printed a bunch of “I Love You” notes on the computer. Every once in a while, I would slip one into her book several pages back from the bookmark, so she’d find it after she had been reading for a while.
She never mentioned them, but after she died, I found a stack of them in her nightstand. Then I started finding them hidden in things of mine that I seldom looked at. They were reminders that our 50-year love affair was “Forever and a day.” - Bob W. in San Antonio
DEAR READER: Your wife surely appreciated the little notes, and they must have meant so much to her.
DEAR HELOISE: I have pretty crystal ashtrays from the “old days” when people smoked. Now I use them for dog- and cat-food dishes.
- Jennifer Martin, Shingle Springs, Calif. Send a money- or time-saving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio,Texas 78279-5000; fax to (210) 435-6473; or e-mail [email protected]
Style, Pages 34 on 05/21/2013