Dear Matthew,
How have you been? I think of you constantly.
Our peach tree has grown enormous since last month, and I've started selling the peaches to try to get back on my feet. I've decided to keep living, however much it hurts sometimes. I'll live, and I'll wait patiently until I can meet you again.
I've dusted every surface in our house, and put up all those pictures of you in your uniform. I suppose now that you're gone, I have no one to object to me hanging them in the entryway, where everyone can see your charming grin.
I've pulled that rug out of our room and put it in the living room, setting the couches nicely around it. I even bought a small table to hold those books we never finished reading together. We were halfway though Anne of Green Gables, remember?
There are small signs of you everywhere in our house. Your clothes in our wardrobe, that I don't think I'll ever throw away; that jar of honey you used on everything, from toast to yogurt to roast chicken; your old boots by the front door, still muddy from that day you braved a storm to buy me medicine when I was sick; and, of course, the peach tree.
Sometimes, I find myself simply sitting down to cry. I'll smell a whiff of your cologne, or I'll come home from the markets without you, and the sadness overcomes me so suddenly that I simply sit where I am and sob until there are no tears left.
But don't worry, darling. I'm doing alright, I think. But I would be so much happier if you were still here.
Why did you have to leave?
You were the best thing that ever happened to me.
I miss you.
Adeline
YOU ARE READING
Dear Matthew
Historical FictionAdeline Brown discovers that her husband, who has just been sent off to fight for the ANZACS in Gallipoli, has been killed in battle. She continues to write letters to him as she processes her grief and tries to live on without him as her house and...
