Dear Graham
My only brother is getting married for the first time in August, although he has three grown-up sons with a former long-term partner.
My reason for writing is that our 80-year-old father has told me that he intends to tell my brother that he has a fictitious holiday abroad booked, coinciding with the date of the wedding in order to avoid attending.
My father is in good health for his age, travels abroad, drives himself locally and also lives near to the wedding venue. Their relationship is rather distant: my father disapproves of what he sees as my brother's "alternative" lifestyle. But he has met the fiancée and has not got anything against her. It just seems he and his wife cannot...