Letter/poem and envelope from Carline Clerdon to Jane Young (nee Hackworth), Vilvorde, Belgium

I have seen expiring in my arms
She who gave me life.
Alas! for a beloved girl
That was the second time to experience death.
In grieving for my sweet mother, ceaselessly
Present to my heart, I was saying to myself
In my sadness “take courage! You still have a
Father!”

I see again the author of my days and, believing I am
Calming his suffering, I offer to his eyes the
Resemblance of he whom he always loved.
But the features of which I was so proud are nothing but a
Crushing weight.
I only bear them trembling.....
The look of them tears my Father apart!
How, bemoaning my fate when the only support I still have, yielding to his baneful
sorrow, invites me to expect only death!
So I am going to languish on earth and, grieving for the author of my woes, I will say
to myself in my unhappiness
“He will forget he was a Father!”