Sad News

[Jatkins252]

Hello all. I am Josh, Heath's younger brother. I can not tell you how much all of you meant to my brother. I have been lucky enough to have Heath for 38 years. We have been joined at the hip for our entire lives. There are few things that Heath loved more than God, his beautiful family, and our South Carolina Gamecocks, but Lincoln certainly was equally as important to him. I have read a ton on President Lincoln, and I owe all of that to Heath. I recall distinctly that a few years ago his wife talked about joining us on our trip to DC when I met Dave and Jim for the first time. Heath looked at her and handed her "Blood on the Moon" and "American Brutus" and told her once she had read them that she could come. He was serious. I made me laugh then and now. I started the arduous task of cleaning out his office today, and it is a shrine to President Lincoln. I will look for his notes, as I know he has been working on his lecture already. I just really want to express to everyone how good of a man he was. The world was a better place with him here. He would be very upset if I did not share his favorite letter from President Lincoln at this time. It was to Fanny McCullough, a young girl that lost her father in the war. I think his words are worth sharing, and Heath talked about this letter all the time. We shared it in his eulogy and I think it is appropriate to share it here also.

“Dear Fanny,
It is with deep regret that I learn of the death of your kind and brave father, and especially that it is affecting your young heart beyond what is common in such cases. In this sad world of ours sorrow comes to all, and to the young it comes with the bittered agony because it takes them unaware.
Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You cannot now realize that you will ever feel better. Is not this so? And yet it is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again. To know this, which is certainly true, will make you some less miserable now. I have experience enough to know what I say, and you need only to believe it to feel better at once. The memory of your dear father, instead of an agony, will yet be a sad, sweet feeling in your heart, of a purer and holier sort than you have known before.
Your sincere friend,
A. Lincoln. “

I am sure most of you have read that before, but it makes me feel a little better every time I read it. I will keep in touch, and thank you for your thoughts and prayers during this time. Please continue to remember my parents as they are really struggling.

Josh

P.S. this is the picture Jim was taking at the time