I know what your sorrow is , and I think I know what your loneliness must be -- the sorrow of a broken tie , the loneliness of a life thrown emptily back on itself . I know how you loved your father -- how you must have loved him if those eyes and brow and mouth speak truth , for they tell of a nature divinely rich and deep , giving of its wealth and tenderness ungrudgingly to those who are so happy as to be the objects of its affection . To such a nature bereavement must bring a depth and an agony of grief unknown to shallower souls . I know what your father 's helplessness and need of you meant to you . I know that now life must seem to you a broken and embittered thing and , knowing this , I venture to send this greeting across the gulf of strangerhood between us , telling you that my understanding sympathy is fully and freely yours , and bidding you take heart for the future , which now , it may be , looks so heartless and hopeless to you . Believe me , dear lady , it will be neither . Courage will come to you with the kind days . You will find noble tasks to do , beautiful and gracious duties waiting along your path . The pain and suffering of the world never dies , and while it lives there will be work for such as you to do , and in the doing of it you will find comfort and strength and the highest joy of living . I believe in you . I believe you will make of your life a beautiful and worthy thing . I give you Godspeed for the years to come . Out of my own loneliness I , an unknown friend , who has never clasped your hand , send this message to you . I understand -- I have always understood -- and I say to you : `` Be of good cheer . '' To say that this strange letter was a mystery to me seems an inadequate way of stating the matter . I was completely bewildered , nor could I even guess who the writer might be , think and ponder as I might . The letter itself implied that the writer was a stranger . The handwriting was evidently that of a man , and I knew no man who could or would have sent such a letter to me . The very mystery stung me to interest . As for the letter itself , it brought me an uplift of hope and inspiration such as I would not have believed possible an hour earlier .
It rang so truly and sincerely , and the mere thought that somewhere I had a friend who cared enough to write it , even in such odd fashion , was so sweet that I was half ashamed XXXXX the difference it made in my outlook .
across along as for if in of on that to