"I Know, Mother, I Know": A Letter from Anne Sexton to Her Daughter

The Letters of Note website posted this letter today, written by Anne Sexton to her then-fifteen-years-old daughter Linda.

Here's the opening. Read the rest after the jump and try not to be sad.

I am in the middle of a flight to St. Louis to give a reading. I was reading a New Yorker story that made me think of my mother and all alone in the seat I whispered to her "I know, Mother, I know." (Found a pen!) And I thought of you — someday flying somewhere all alone and me dead perhaps and you wishing to speak to me.

And I want to speak back. (Linda, maybe it won't be flying, maybe it will be at your own kitchen table drinking tea some afternoon when you are 40. Anytime.) — I want to say back.

1st, I love you.

2. You never let me down

3. I know. I was there once. I too, was 40 and with a dead mother who I needed still.