DEAR Jasminda,

ON a recent flight with turbulence, the lady next to me grabbed my arm for reassurance.

I tried to make her feel better by saying it was just the cloud cover.

I’m also a nervous flyer so what I was really thinking was ‘we’re all going to die’.

Was I right to lie?

Geraldine H.

Dear Geraldine,

In everyone’s life there comes a time where we need to show more bravery and understanding than we feel.

It happens all the time in war movies.

There will be a fallen soldier with his appendix, spleen and kidneys hanging out and a bit of shrapnel lodged in his throat, and his buddy will say, “You’re going to be okay.”

And they will be the last words he hears instead of, “Jim, you’re not going to make it. Also, I’m secretly in love with your fiancé.”

When my son had his entire knee scalped on a star picket, internally I was screaming.

But I reassured him, mentioning he might need a few days off school.

That made him forget his knee and focus on me being his full-time servant.

Since you are writing to me now, it’s clear you didn’t die, so you definitely did the right thing. The lady would have felt comforted by your reassurance and it probably got her through the flight.

It may have even been an important step in managing your own fears.

Well done!