Dear Fred

Afterlife

Of course, life isn't limited to living. I learnt a great deal after death. I watched over you, when I was able. I watched your father abandon you, sending you away to school and never visiting you, never taking you home, never responding to your letters. I cursed him for it, for leaving you
for a wedded lady in Norway, who eventually killed him.

Your grandfather passed in the same way as your Uncle Charlie - influenza, when you would have been but a day old. It was unexpected but I am sure a relief to Eb. Ebeneezer would have had to care for him, alongside studying and the recreation which is somehow an entitlement of boys of
his age. He left plenty of inheritance to me, but did not know that the day before, I had passed. He never knew you were born, the letter would have arrived two days after his demise. It meant Ebeneezer had a fine house and great inheritance.

Indeed, I dwell with my Father, who, in his latter years, did fall into believing, and, in doing so, has been reunited with his wife, daughter and granddaughter in the heavens.

In terms of certainties of your father's death, I can only say that his Noweigan lady-friend, with assurance from his Danish companion, convinced him that suicide would be the most beautiful outcome of all his problems - his grief, his guilt. This
was mere months after his departure from you. Both ladies were driven mad and followed him within the week, their deaths are written in their own manuscripts - do not expect to see any of them here with me.