| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 1 December 1884 |
ENGELS TO CHARLOTTE ENGELS
IN ENGELSKIRCHEN
London, 1 December 1884
Dear Lottchen,
Your telegram arrived this morning shortly before ten. I had been prepared for this news for some time, ever since Hermann wrote to me in some detail about Emil's condition[1] and especially since the week before last when your brother-in-law Colsman visited me. We talked a great deal about Emil, Colsman being fully conversant with the medical circumstances of the case. There was, I gathered, no more hope, the verdict had been given and the consummation could only be a matter of weeks. And yet I had not expected that it would be so quick. It has happened, and we must resign ourselves to it.
It has been a period of your life, dear Lottchen, such as you will never.again experience; a line has been drawn through a whole chap- ter of happiness, now irrevocably brought to an end. I know how bleak and empty the world must seem to you at this moment, and I know that in your heart of hearts you wish that chance may enable you presently to be laid to rest beside your Emil. That is natural and is what anyone who stands beside the bier of a beloved spouse would wish. But remember that my mother had to endure this too. She had 41 years of happiness and then was widowed. And there are few women who loved their husbands more ardently than she my father. And yet with her children and among their children and children's children she acquired a new lease of life and lived among us, at any rate not unhappily, for the next 14 years. And she was older than you are and all her children were grown-up and provided for, whereas you still have several for whom there are duties to fulfil of a kind only a mother can fulfil and which weigh all the more heavily for their now being fatherless.
I always had a particularly intimate relationship with Emil and, however far our views may have diverged, one thing we still had in common was our preoccupation with scientific matters, irrespective of whether or not they had any immediate practical application. One episode I shall never forget. When, after father's death, I had to cope with a most difficult state of affairs while physically so indisposed that I was incapable of making one single urgent decision in a sound frame of mind and with faculties unimpaired, there was Emil, clear of eye, firm of resolve and in full command of the situation, to extri- cate me and bring the negotiations in Manchester, upon which my whole future depended, to a successful conclusion.[2] If I now live here in London, a man of independent means, this is thanks not least to Emil.
Nor would my uncertain state of health deter me from leaving to- night to pay my dear brother my last respects. But there is the possi- bility, indeed probability, that my presence would lead to harassment by the police and nothing in the world would induce me to expose you and the others to such a thing at this particular moment. After all, was not a universally renowned chemist,[3] naturalised English- man and member of the British Royal Society, harassed in Darm- stadt, his native city, a few months ago simply because he had attend- ed Marx's funeral, harassed to the extent that he at once departed?[4] What might I not expect? Once again I shall doubtless have to regard myself as a political refugee for the time being.
Well, dear Lottchen, one thing I do know and that is that you women are stronger and pluckier than we men. Whatever you en- dure, if endure it you must, you do so better than we do. You, yourself, with the marvellous self-control that I have often envied, will be able to overcome even this most grievous blow, the grief we all of us share with you and of which you must bear the brunt. A kiss from me for the children. With all my love.
Your trusty old
Friedrich