Love Letters

Last night before going to bed I read this love letter that moved me to tears. It was written by Regimental Sergeant - Major James Milne who was a company sergeant-major serving with the 4th Battalion, Gordon Highlanders. It was written to his wife Meg in the event of his being killed in battle.

July 1917

My own beloved wife,
I do not know how to start this letter. The circumstances are different from any under which I have ever wrote before. I am not to post it but will leave it in my pocket, and if anything happens to me, someone will perhaps post it. We are going over the top this forenoon and only God in Heaven knows who will come out of it alive. I am going into it now, Dearest, sure that I am in His hands and that whatever happens, I look to Him, in this world and the world to come.
If I am called, my regret is that I leave you and my Bairns, but I leave you all to His great mercy and goodness, knowing that He will look over you all and watch you. I trust in Him to bring me through, but should He decree otherwise then though we do not know His reasons, we know it must be best. I go to Him with your dear face the last vision on earth I shall see and your name upon my lips. You, the best of Women. You will look after my Darling Bairns for me and tell them how their Daddy died.
Oh! How I love you all, and as I sit here waiting I wonder what you are doing at home. I must not do that. It is hard enough sitting waiting. We may move any minute. When this reaches you, for me there will be no more war - only eternal peace and waiting for you.
You must be brave, my Darling, for my sake, for I leave you the Bairns. It is a legacy of struggle for you, but God will look after you and we shall meet again when there will be no more parting. I am to write no more, Sweetheart. I know you will read my old letters and keep them for my sake, and that you will love me or my memory till we meet again.
May God in his Mercy look over you and bless you all till that day we shall meet again in His own Good time. May He in that same Mercy preserve me today.
GoodBye Meg,
Eternal love from
Yours for Ever and Ever,
Jim.

Milne came through the war and returned home to his wife and children in Scotland.

This got me thinking, not just about love letters, but about the act of writing a letter. I love nothing more than getting a handwritten letter in the post, so on that note I am wondering if there are any fellow bloggers out there who would be interested in becoming pen friends?