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A Letter To My Wife

Sister Pat Hinckley passed away last tuesday, April the 6th. Her funeral was yesterday. The Prophet mentioned his dear wife during Genereal Conference. This sweet letter was written several years ago by President Hinckley to his one love. I felt it might help a few of us here to remember what is important in our lives.

From : "Glimpses Into the Life and Heart of Marjorie Pay Hinckley".


"My Darling,
All that is said in this book concerning your virtues is true. Your own words and those spoken by a host of friends bear tribute to your worth. More, much more, might have been included.
It is now more than sixty years since we entered the Salt Lake Temple, there to be married for eternity. I had known you for a long time prior to that. I knew what I was getting into, and it has turned out as I had hoped it would.
What a treasured companion you have been. Through all these years we have walked side by side as equals before the Lord. There have been good days and bad days, but the good days have far outnumbered the bad ones.
Life for the most part has dealt gently with us. During the Depression, when we were newly married, we were poor and didn't know it because we were so rich in the things that really count. The laughter of happy children graced our kitchen table. The presence of a loving mother blessed our home. The Lord has opened the windows of heaven and showered down blessings too numerous to mention. He has smiled upon us in a wondrous way.
We have found comfort and gladness in one another and in our children. Now they have families of their own and grandchildren. All of our posterity have brought joy to our hearts.
When our children were young, you seldom traveled with me. I would be gone for as long as two months at a time. There were not even telephone calls permitted in those days. We wrote letters. You never complained. How wonderful it was to come home and be held warmly in your arms and those of our children.
Now in more recent years we have traveled far and wide together. We have visited every continent. We have held meetings in the great cities of the world and in many smaller ones. We have met the distinguished of the earth. We have spoken to millions who have appreciated you greatly. With your familiar words you have won the love of all who have heard you. Your down-to-earth good sense, your sparkling and refreshing wit, your quiet and unfailing wisdom, and your tremendous and ever constant faith have won the hearts of all who have listened to you.
You have been my critic and my judge. You have seen to it that my shoes were shined, my suit pressed, my tie straight. You have pushed aside the flattery that comes with public life, and winnowed the kind and sincere words of honest and loving friends. You have held at bay that old fraud of adulation and kept my feet planted on the solid earth. How I appreciate you.
Your voracious appetite for reading and your relentless pursuit of knowledge have kept you alert and refreshing throughout a long and fruitful life.
Now we have grown old together, and it has been a sweet experience. We have shrunk in stature and move a little more slowly. We are more forgetful. But as of this writing we still have one another--and that is so good. And when in some future day the hand of death gently touches one or the other of us there will be tears, yes, but there will also be a quiet and certain assurance of reunion and eternal companionship.
'Trusty, dusky, vivid, true...'*
The God of Heaven fashioned you.
I love you, dear,
Gordon"

Wife To Letter A

Patty, thanks for adding that beautiful letter in our forum. It brought so many tears to my eyes...what a great love Pres. Hinckley felt for his wife and I know even though he may look good, he must be feeling so lonely and sad. but more than anybody else, he knows he will be reunited with her soon.
A journalist asked Marjorie Hinckley one day how it feels to be married a Prophet of God and she replied 'I don't know, I didn't marry a Prophet. I married Gordon'.

A Letter To My Wife Studies Doctrine Mormon

They are truly a remarkable couple. I will miss her. They had such chemistry together. I pray he has the strength to go on without her. I know the Lord is with him, but I am sure even the Prophet feels pain at the separation he is experiencing right now. He must miss her terribly.

Wife To Letter A

"I am so grateful for her. For 66 years we have walked together, hand in
hand, with love and encouragement, with appreciation and respect. It cannot
be very long before one of us will step through the veil. I hope the other
will follow soon. I just would not know how to get along without her, even
on the other side, and I would hope that she would not know how to get
along without me."

(Gordon B. Hinckley, "To the Women of the Church," Ensign, Nov. 2003, 115)