A letter, over a month late, arriving from Kenneth Broderick, paternal uncle to Alastair.
Margrave-street, Feb. 7.
MY DEAR NEPHEW,
I am called upon by circumstances, and by our relation, to condole with you on the most regrettable loss you have suffered. I must sorrowfully inform you that your father passed from this world on to the next on Jan. 21, after a short period in which his health rapidly declined. I have written you with all haste to ensure that the news reach you from a relative and not in a letter from the sanitorium in which he was cared for, and I hope that, although the news cannot be softened sufficiently, you will take to heart that his brother and sisters were by his side when he was reclaimed to God’s bosom—he did not die alone. His final wish was for you to be happy and he expressed himself very lucidly towards the end; he was adamant that I make it quite clear in my letter that he did not fault you in any way for the lack of your presence at his side during his final hours. He desired that I lay out the circumstances whereby he had arranged matters to be so himself. He had forbidden the sanitorium to write you of his illness, and I, his brother, and his two sisters also; he explained that he wished you to always see him as he had been when he was younger, and not in the much-deteriorated state he later came to be in. He also wished that you would receive the remainder of the sum that was set to pay for his care; this amounts to a total of £1,029 and has already been entered into an account in your name at the London & Westminster Bank Ltd. in London. I know this comes as no good news given the circumstances surrounding it. If either I or your aunts can offer any support in your time of grief, you have but to ask.
Yours, &c.
KENNETH BRODERICK