Kimberly Yam | Huffington Post, January 2015
One widower has found solace in his late wife’s touching words.
Jimmy Breland of Cleveland, Mississippi, was married to his wife, Billie, for 60 years. When she fell ill late last year and had to be hospitalized, Jimmy stayed by her side every single day, until her death earlier this month, according to Yellow Hammer News. Days after her death, the widower came across a note that she’d left in her checkbook for him to find.
According to a Facebook post from Cliff Sims, the couple’s grandson, the note read:
“Please don’t cry because I died! Smile because I lived! Know that I’m in a happy place! Know that we will meet again! I will see you there!”
The message, Sims says, overwhelmed his grandfather with emotion.
“I’ll never forget the look in my granddad’s eyes when he showed the rest of our family the note — some tears, but a lot of smiles, too,” Sims told The Huffington Post in an email.
Billie, who had worked as a teacher at a local public school, often wrote small messages and reminders to herself, according to Yellow Hammer News. While the family is not sure when this particular memo was written, it will always carry a special message to her husband.
“That note will be a source of comfort and a reminder that love conquers everything, even death,” Sims told HuffPost. “There’s an indescribable peace that comes with knowing he’ll be reunited with her in eternity.”