A Countrymen's Year (And The Next Life)

I recently pulled this book off of my shelf and set about reading it a couple nights ago as I soaked in the tub. As soon as I opened the book, I began thumbing through the pages in order to find the letter that you wrote me. I keep the letter in here because I feel as if this book and this letter are a pair and must stay together; the book has less meaning without the letter and the letter has no meaning without the book, so they have not left each other since I received both six years ago.

I sure do hope there is a next life, babe. Not because I am miserable in this current life (I am certainly not), but because if it goes like we have hoped and imagined, I will be with you, just like you mention in this letter. We will have a farm and a large garden and me and the boys will hunt, fish and mend fences, while you and the girls tend to the garden, make food and host the other girls and ladies from the nearby farms. Even during the hardest of times, everything will still be good because you make everything better.