Nobel laureate’s moving letter to his late wife (document was unopened for 43 years)

Richard Feynman was a famous physicist of his generation. He participated in the development of the atomic bomb in the 1940s and won the Nobel Prize in 1965 for his work in quantum electrodynamics. His sense of humor knew no bounds. The author titled his autobiography It’s got to be a joke, Mr. Feynman! In addition to physics, the scientist was fond of chemistry, microbiology, played the bongo, painted portraits and studied the writing of the Maya peoples. Once, he managed to decipher a secret code and thus open one of the Pentagon vaults.

Of course, next to this man was his beloved wife Arline. The lovers left school together, but a serious illness took the young woman’s life in 1945, when she was just 25 years old. Almost a year after the tragedy, Richard wrote her a letter, which he carried with him everywhere, unopened, until her death in 1988.

At the awesome.club we believe in eternal love and we are sure that this letter finally reached its intended recipient. In this post, you will read the full text (taken from James Gleick’s book, Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman)🇧🇷

“Dear Arline,
i adore you, darling.

I know how you like to hear me, but I write not just to please you. I write because it floods my interior with warmth. I didn’t write for a long time, almost 2 years. But I know you’ll forgive me, an inveterate pragmatist. I thought there was no point in writing to you.

But now, my dear wife, I know that I must do what I have long postponed and so often done in the past. I mean I love you. I want to love her. I will always love you.

With my mind it’s hard to understand what it means to love you after you’re dead, but until now I want to protect you and take care of you. And I want you to love me and take care of me. I want to talk to you about my problems. I want to do different things with you. Until now, this had never happened to me. But we could do a lot of things together: sew clothes, learn Chinese, buy a movie projector. And now, can I do this? No, I’m so lonely without you. You were the main generator of ideas and the source of inspiration for all my crazy adventures.

When you were sick, you worried about not being able to give me what I needed, what you wanted to give me. You shouldn’t have worried. There was no need for that. I always said that I loved her very much, simply for existing. And now I understand this more than ever. You can’t give me anything else and I love you so much I can never love anyone else. And I want it to be like this. Because even dead you are much better than all the living.

I know you’re going to say I’m a fool and want me to be happy without getting in my way. You will probably be surprised to know that during those 2 years I didn’t even have a girlfriend (except you, my beloved). And you can’t do anything about it. I also can not. I do not understand anything. I’ve met a lot of girls, including some very nice ones, and I don’t want to be alone, but after a few dates, I realized that they meant nothing to me. I only have you. Are you real.

My dear wife, I adore you.
I love my wife. My wife died.

rich

PS: Please forgive me for not sending you this letter: I don’t know your new address.”