From H. E. Darwin to G. H. Darwin [1866]

My dear George

It is all over, & poor Aunt Catherine is at rest. She died most calmly & peacefully with no sufering at the last. Aunt Caroline had been with her in the night a good deal. And left her to go to sleep after her opeate, & then the nurse was just in time to call Uncle Charles & he saw that she died without pain which is a great comfort to him. Edmund is going down there. I fear poor Aunt Susan will suffer for all this.

I must write to William & Frank, so goodbye dear George. This will be a great grief to Papa. I don't feel as if I realised it. I cannot take in that she is gone for ever, that she knows the great mystery now. It all seems un-real to me.

yours ever | H.E.D.