Dear Annie: I lost precious photos in the divorce; 40 years later, ex is still holding them hostage

Dear Annie: I was married for 19 years, and we had three children together. Our divorce was nearly 40 years ago. One of the lingering issues from that time was the ownership of our many travel slides, which documented years of family trips abroad. The court divided them roughly in half.

Years later, I paid to have my share of the slides digitized and gave my ex-husband online access so he could select any he wanted. Over the past decade, I’ve repeatedly asked to borrow his slides so I can copy them, too -- especially since some contain precious photos of my late family members. I even offered to cover all expenses and suggested he keep full control of the process so he wouldn’t have to worry about me keeping them.

Despite all that, he refuses to cooperate or even explain why. We haven’t