Dr. Laura,

You and I go waaaay back. In 1978 I called to talk with you about my upcoming marriage. When you asked me how old I was and I replied 18, you quickly in true Dr Laura fashion, told me I was wanting to play house and asked if I realized how ridiculous the notion was that I would consider making such an adult decision when I was a child. You also said something to the effect that you had pants older than I was.

Well, I was quite certain that I was indeed old enough to marry and thought you were completely out to lunch with your so called "advice".

Now here I am about to celebrate my 35th anniversary with the man I was about to marry at the time of that call. I'm not writing to tell you how wrong you were and how our love conquered all in spite of my young age. On the contrary, I am writing to tell you how completely right you were. My marriage has been extremely difficult because the people we became didn't even resemble the people we were when we walked down the aisle. We couldn't be. Physiologically, it was impossible as our brains weren't even finished developing at that age. The reason we are still together is shear stubbornness on both of our parts. We are both too stubborn to fail. Through the years we have kicked, clawed, screamed and yelled our way into a real and mature loving relationship and although our marriage still takes work, we are finally hitting our stride.

I wanted to tell you, all these years later, that although I poo poo'd your advice, I now thank you for being the only voice of reason during that time. Our own parents didn't even stand up and at least try to explain that what we were about to do was foolish. I just wish someone would have echoed your advice and tried to save us many, many years of difficulty.

Our children cut their first teeth on your show and now our grandchildren are becoming third generation Dr. Laura listeners. I am quite confident they realize you indeed do know what you're talking about, respect your opinion and have learned from their parents stubborn and immature mistakes.

Although I didn't take heed to your advice all those years ago, you can be certain my children and children's children will not be repeating that mistake. They know better because they grew up listening to you and have learned what you mean when you end each program with "Now go do the right thing."

Thank you for hanging in there with all of us for all these years.

Mary