For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 16, 2008

I once attended the wedding of a cousin whose grandfather, with whom my cousin was very close, had passed away the previous day. The wedding was on a Saturday and the newlyweds delayed their honeymoon until after the funeral on Monday.

The reception was very strange – joyful, yet subdued.

So it looks as if Grandpa Jim isn’t going to make it to the end of FBOFW - a beginning and an ending to bow out on? Guess it would make sense …

I felt this was the way it was going to go. I’ve read this column since Michael & Elizabeth were young children. Before April was born. When Grandpa Jim was married to his first wife. I think he’ll be at the wedding. Just not the way they expected.

Oh….. I can’t believe this cartoon is bring tears to my eyes. Such a mixture of emotions this week!

well, namenamename, no one is making you read this strip every day are they? Reminds me of those old ladies at the book store looking at a Playboy and saying how disgusting and dergrading it is. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to look.

I do not want the strip to end. It will be like loosing part of our family.

What I love about this comic is that it mirrors real life. Not every wedding is perfect, sometimes stuff happens. I was hoping that Grandpa would be at the wedding but, c’est la vie!

Shame on you, namenamename. Be like Thumper. “If you can’t say somethin’ nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.” Nobody likes a sourpuss.

We all know the end is near for ol’Jim, but I was hoping he would make it to the wedding. They should tell Elizabeth anyway, better that she know now and not have any regrets later.

I think we will see Jim and his first wife together as loving spirits, watching Liz get married. And, I thought the latest was that the strip was going to continue and Lynn is not retiring after all?

FBOFW is just great. It is a reflection of so many lives in our society. I suggest to all the negatives commentors - discontinue reading it! Keep up the good work, Lynn.

I agree with JmcaRice Elizabeth should know, anyway, FBOFW has been a part of my daily life, I am glad we are able to read the early years it brings a lot of good memories back :-I

Once the current plotlines have concluded, the strip will go almost full-time to reruns, but the old story arcs will be fleshed out, and some new material will be available on Sundays. The characters will stop aging, however. See

http://www.fborfw.com/behindthescenes/hybrid/

(Sorry, link is broken. Copy, insert underscores after “behind” and “the”, and paste.)

I’AM so upset with this, i too feel like i’am going to cry. I felt like i was part of the patterson family and now they are one more.My mother had a stroke and she lived for 20yrs with it and she passed away 2and a half years ago and i felt like elly when she stayed with jim when iris went away, i hated to see my mom get old and i knew it was her time to go but it was still hard to let her go and i feel like that right now.PLEASE LYNN DON’T END FOR BETTER FOR WORSE

OH the drama. OH the drama.

Nah, I think they’ll take the entire wedding to the hospital room. P.S. I did mention I was a psychic, right? LOLOLOLOL

It is her art to do with as she will. I will read to the end of her story, but I doubt that I will read the strip after that. It is just a shame that one of the very few strips with developing story lines will just stop. The story lines kept me reading. I looked forward to seeing how April grows, how the family deals with the loss of Jim, etc. Sadly, there are some awful loose ends. The ghost of Jim’s first wife seems more important than Iris, who has now become more caregiver than anything else. It is almost like saying that your beloved step mom and youngest daughter just don’t matter as much as the other children. :-( Still, I remain a fan. Much as I am a fan of Peanuts. I just miss the new material.

Did I miss something? Where does it say the strip will end?? I don’t get FBOW in my newspaper, so I have been pleased to enjoy it in Gocomics. I hope it continues on with life’s challenges, changes, and happinesses.

For anyone who doesn’t get the strip in their newspaper anymore, just go to the For Better or For Worse website www.fborfw.com to keep up on daily strips, old strips, news, behind the scenes, etc. Very interesting!It also has background info on a lot of the characters and storylines!

Since I started reading this comic several years ago I realized it was a soap opera. This is just another soap event in the lives of the characters.