Beloved Matthew and Adeline,
This is Amy. I found these letters in Adeline's dresser on the day I moved back into your gorgeous house with my family. Thank you for thinking of me when you wrote the will.
Adeline, I miss you so very much. My husband often marvels at my piano playing, and it's all thanks to your patience and kind encouragement. So for that, and for being the mother I desperately needed, I am eternally grateful.
Matthew, I never knew you personally, but I remember seeing you on the day you went to join the army, proudly wearing your gallant soldier's uniform and slouch hat. You looked like a hero.
I want to send you both off with these final words, so you can rest peacefully knowing that you were loved and will be missed:
You were the kindest couple in town; there wasn't a soul that didn't know of dear Matthew and Adeline Brown. Adeline, you have an iron will and a soft heart—you rebuilt your home from the ground up, and refused to give in to grief when Matthew passed from this world. Your hands were always busy teaching children how to play the piano, and your voice would always ring through the house when you sang to them. You were a beautiful woman and despite becoming a widow before your time had come, you never ceased to bring joy to others. I believe your life inspired many, as it inspired me.
Matthew, you were the town's champion. I've been told many stories about you—helping new settlers build their houses, chasing down sheep or other livestock that had escaped from their paddocks . . . and of course, the famous story of how you met Adeline when she fell off her horse and you tended to her every day for a week, bringing soup and fruit-laden baskets to her door each morning. Thank you for loving Adeline, and giving her a place to come home to every day. You made her life beautiful, and in turn my own life has become more fruitful than your peach tree.
That tree will stand for generations to come. My family have set a little steel plaque into the base of the trunk, so that even when we too move on to another life, everyone who lives in your house for the next hundred years will know the beautiful story of Matthew and Adeline.
Farewell.
Amy Wilson-Brown
~ The End ~
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...
