My dearest Sophie. I pray you will read this. You are first & last to me. I do not know if we will survive this night. They are all around us. They scream & cry so that it is hard to think to put these words on the page. You must know that I love you. I am not afraid of death but instead of the passage from here to oblivion, of being aware of its coming. I would rather have been run through with a spear than to face this long dread.
