Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman's beautiful letter to late wife is the epitome of love

Love lingers even after death. It takes a special kind of strength to hold together this invaluable love for someone in our hearts even after they’re gone. Nobel prize winner Richard Feynman was no stranger to love, per Big Think. The physicist who made a significant contribution to the making of the atomic bomb also had surreal emotions like we do. He wrote a letter to the love of his life, his late wife, Arline, one and a half years after her passing, per Letters of Note. However, the contents capture the fresh, real and thriving sentiments he held even in his grief. Arline passed away in 1945 after battling terminal tuberculosis, per Open Culture.

Shortly after her passing, in October 1946, her husband decided to write her a letter. As strange as it seems, it contained raw and real emotions and was discovered only after Feynman’s passing in 1988. Addressing the letter to his high school sweetheart, he began with a bold expression of his love for her. “I adore you, sweetheart,” he wrote. He continued, “I know how much you like to hear that — but I don’t only write it because you like it — I write it because it makes me warm all over inside to write it to you.” He confessed that it had been nearly two years since he had written to her and noted that he wanted to do the right thing, which he had delayed. 

“I want to tell you I love you. I want to love you. I will always love you,” he confidently wrote. Getting vulnerable yet holding love as a pillar of strength, he revealed much of the grief he felt after his beloved wife’s passing. “I find it hard to understand in my mind what it means to love you after you are dead — but I still want to comfort and take care of you — and I want you to love me and care for me,” he said. Looking back, he noted every little thing he wished to do with his wife, from discussions about projects to sharing problems. “I never thought until just now that we could do that. Can’t I do something now? No. I am alone without you. You were the ‘idea-woman’ and general instigator of all our wild adventures,” he revealed. 

He tried to assure his wife that she didn’t need to worry about not being able to be there for him when she was sick. “Just as I told you then, there was no real need because I loved you in so many ways, so much. And now it is clearly even more true — you can give me nothing now, yet I love you so that you stand in my way of loving anyone else — but I want you to stand there. You, dead, are so much better than anyone else alive,” Feynman poignantly remarked. He mentioned that even though Arline would want him to move on and be happy, he had no one else but her on his mind.

A post shared on X by @PhysInHistory revealed the couple gazing lovingly at each other, giving a glimpse of the strong sentiment the duo had for each other. “You can’t help it, darling, nor can I — I don’t understand it, for I have met many girls, very nice ones and I don’t want to remain alone — but in two or three meetings, they all seem like ashes. You only are left to me. You are real,” he poured his heart out. His words revealed that his wife, even though gone, remained the center of his world and his definition of love. Concluding with the words he thought she loved best, Feynman said, “My darling wife, I do adore you. I love my wife. My wife is dead. Rich.” He sorrowfully added, “Please excuse my not mailing this — but I don’t know your new address.”