Everyone laughed when they sent an eighty-year-old man and his eighteen-year-old wife off to spend their wedding night together. “Let’s see if Grandpa can make it until morning,” one relative joked through a burst of laughter. He didn’t respond. He simply picked up his old briefcase and closed the door. When six relatives opened it the next morning, they stopped laughing when they discovered what he had been protecting all night.

At his funeral service, Chloe stood directly beside the wooden casket with red eyes and a remarkably straight back, refusing to let her composure break down completely.

Hannah approached her side and gently took her hand.

“It is completely okay to break down and cry,” Hannah whispered softly.

“I know it is,” Chloe replied through her tears.

“I am just trying my best to do what he always did, which is to stay strong until I finish what I need to do.”

While sorting through Walter’s personal military keepsakes after the funeral, the family discovered an old, faded letter folded neatly into four sections.

It was the original letter written by Chloe’s father, Thomas, just days before his death.