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I am finally able to write an e-mail,and want to tell you how much I thoroughly enjoy your strip. I have read it faithfully ever since it was first included in the St.Louis Post Dispatch. It is so down to earth, and funny too. I have always voted it my very favorite, and hope to be reading it for years to come.

Betty E, IL

Hi, Lynn: I've been reading you from the beginning. I'm 10 years older than you are, and I have found so much in your strip that has ended on the fridge. I bid on and won a strip and some books you donated to a cause in Las Vegas last year, and my eldest daughter, an at risk elementary teacher like Elizabeth, is the proud possessor of the strip. She writes, and teaches seminars to teachers on how to work on writing with their students, and since the strip deals with everyone wanting to edit her writing, she loves it!
I'm glad Elizabeth and Anthony have finally hooked up, and have loved how you've covered the entire range of issues that arise in families and society. I'll miss you, and hope you have a lovely time after the deadlines are done. Cheers.

Joy C., Reno NV

One of the biggest complaints I have with the recent Anthony/Liz park storyline is the portrayal of Francie. Francie doesn't act the way a normal 2.5-year-old should act. She acts like she's at least 8, which is impossible. Considering she was born in 2005, even if she was extremely intelligent, Francie should not be speaking in such advanced sentences as she does in the strips. It's just unrealistic. Frankly, I think it Francie is just being used as a plot device to force Liz and Anthony together without them having to do anything to get together on their own. I am disappointed because this is lazy writing from someone who normally does child characters quite well.

Jenna W., Las Vegas NV

Put me in the pro Liz-Anthony camp. You can see from reading the strip for several years that they have always loved each other, and just needed to get their timing right. Lynn has done an incredible job of discreetly foreshadowing the ultimate union of Liz and Anthony...even back when Anthony made the mistake of marrying evil Therese when he thought Liz was no longer available. (I guess I can throw the foreshadowing out the window if the Liz/Anthony union goes awry again.)

Anyway, I've been rooting for them ever since their post high school "break-up", so lets hope for a wedding before Lynn retires!

Steve W., Atlanta GA

I love the idea of Anthony and Elizabeth together - I am a person who believes love is fated since I married my high school sweetheart 12 years after we broke up. Both of us had marriages in between with children and we have now been married almost 25 years. But I really hope that Lynn doesn't make things get ugly by bringing Anthony's ex onto the scene. I have been through that and the fear that it will happen to Elizabeth almost makes me afraid to be happy for them. So please, don't let the evil ex back into the strip.

Joanne G, IL

I have been reading FBorFW since the beginning. My wife and I were looking for some light reading while in the doctor's office enduring multiple visits and long waits leading up to the birth of our first child. "David, We're Pregnant" gave way to "Hi Mom Hi Dad," "Do They Ever Grow Up," and the syndication of the FBorFW strip in preternatural timing allowing us to laugh at the painful reality of the life events we were going through as our own children came along and grew in lock step with the Paterson family.

We own all the books and eagerly await the fall release of each years addition to our collection. Both in family life and in my work as a clinical therapist I have lost count of the number of times I have heard myself say "that's just like that FBorFW comic that goes like..." We have used examples from them to teach our kids that they are not alone with life's problems, that things aren't always fair, and that teasing, sibling rivalry, parenting and discipline are something we struggle with at all stages of life and relationship.

I like to use humor and metaphores in the counselling office and I have prescribed reading FBorFW on countless occasions as homework whether for issues of parenting, relationships, inner child work or just to elevate a person's mood. I know we are getting somewhere when I start to get examples back from my clients of how a certain comic echoes their experience or seems to teach or express what the client is going through.

It was with great sadness that I learned of Lynn's impending retirement although, true to FBorFW's real life theam, it forced me to take stock and realize that it really had been that long and that, while still some time away, my retirement was looming ever nearer. Our kids are grown and we celebrated my son's wedding this spring and my daughter is busy planning her fall wedding so the Patersons have stopped being us and are more like really good friends who live next door in a glass house that lets us see them more deeply and intimately than would otherwise be the case. We rejoiced with Gordon and Tracy as they discovered love, got goose bumps as Michael and Deana reconnected, and now we wait expectantly to see what Elizabeth will do.

Unlike many who have written in I don't have a problem with Elizabeth and Gordon getting together. I see similar stories played out again and again in the counselling office. Gordon's ex was obviously wrong for him on so manny levels and had left the relationship long before the divorce. Gordon on the other hand has shown quiet persistent growth as a "person" over the years and I think he will finally make a good partner for Elizabeth. His experiences should allow him to be a proper foil/support for her growth in years to come. It is unfortunate that we won't get to see those years.

Mike B, Nova Scotia