The first was a letter, several pages of yellowed stationery covered in that same elegant, trembling hand.

The second I did not fully take in at first, because my eyes had gone straight to the letter, and the director said, very gently, “Read the letter first, Julian.

Then we’ll talk about the rest.”

So I unfolded the pages, and I read, and I want to give you her words as nearly as I can, because they are the truest thing anyone has ever written to me, and I have read them so many times since that I could recite them in my sleep.

I will not reproduce every line, because some of it belongs only to me.