Where thou diest, will I die, and there will
I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more
also, if ought but death part thee and me.
Ruth 1:17,
Harry Hopkins goeth with Winston Churchill "even to the end." Five years later almost to the day Hopkins wrote to Churchill.
New York
January 22, 1946
Dear Winston,
Only being laid up in the hospital prevented me from meeting you at the boat the other day and I do hope you will find it possible to get to New York, because it appears altogether unlikely that I could possibly be in Florida during the next month.
All I can say about myself at the moment is that I am getting excellent care, while the doctors are struggling over a very bad case of cirrhosis of the liver—not due, I regret to say, from taking too much alcohol. But I must say that I dislike having the effect of a long life of congenial and useful drinking and neither deserve the reputation nor enjoy its pleasures.
The newspapers indicate you and Clemmie are having a quiet and delightful time and I hope you won’t let any Congressional Committee of ours bore you.
Do give my love to Clemmie and Sarah, all of whom I shall hope to see before you go back, but I want to have a good talk with you over the state of world affairs, to say nothing of our private lives.
It was to be the last letter Hopkins would ever write, for Ruth:1-17, "But death part thee and me" came just one week later. On January 29, 1946 Harry Hopkins died.
Good night.
I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more
also, if ought but death part thee and me.
Ruth 1:17,
Harry Hopkins goeth with Winston Churchill "even to the end." Five years later almost to the day Hopkins wrote to Churchill.
New York
January 22, 1946
Dear Winston,
Only being laid up in the hospital prevented me from meeting you at the boat the other day and I do hope you will find it possible to get to New York, because it appears altogether unlikely that I could possibly be in Florida during the next month.
All I can say about myself at the moment is that I am getting excellent care, while the doctors are struggling over a very bad case of cirrhosis of the liver—not due, I regret to say, from taking too much alcohol. But I must say that I dislike having the effect of a long life of congenial and useful drinking and neither deserve the reputation nor enjoy its pleasures.
The newspapers indicate you and Clemmie are having a quiet and delightful time and I hope you won’t let any Congressional Committee of ours bore you.
Do give my love to Clemmie and Sarah, all of whom I shall hope to see before you go back, but I want to have a good talk with you over the state of world affairs, to say nothing of our private lives.
It was to be the last letter Hopkins would ever write, for Ruth:1-17, "But death part thee and me" came just one week later. On January 29, 1946 Harry Hopkins died.
Good night.
