I was thinking of the saving grace of a message of love… something to lift you when all else is weight.

Peter Bruun

Royal Artillery gunner Lee Thornton, 22, died for his country on a mission outside Basra, Iraq, in 2006. And though his life ended that day, he left a piece of himself behind – an enduring promise to his young fiancée Helen, waiting for him at home in England and preparing for their never-to-be wedding. In a letter he left with her parents a few months before and hoped she’d never read (“I really hope that this letter never gets to you, because if it does that means I am dead”), he strove to capture the meaning she’d brought his short life. He believed God had put them on earth to find each other, he said, “and show the rest of the world what true love really looks like.” And though he gave all he had on the battlefield, he wanted to assure her, in her singular moment of loss, that he’d always be watching over her.