Jimmy Breland: Husband Finds Beautiful Note From Late Wife Of 60 Years

Just a few days after losing his wife of 60 years, Jimmy Breland came across a note, written by his wife, tucked away inside a checkbook, left there for him to find.

Jimmy Breland’s wife, Billie, fell ill late last year. The couple’s grandson, Cliff Sims, relayed the story to Yellowhammer News.

“…Shortly after she [Billie] and my grandfather [Jimmy Breland] returned home to Cleveland, Miss. after spending Thanksgiving with the rest of the family here in Birmingham, Ala., she took a fall and broke her hip. The surgery went well, but the unfamiliarity with her surroundings in the rehab facility exacerbated her memory loss. She was often confused, even having trouble recognizing longtime friends. She also began experiencing occasional fainting spells the doctors called ‘syncope,’ but we remained optimistic that a return to the familiar surroundings of home and her beloved crossword puzzles would help her come out of it.

“Every day my Grandaddy stayed by her side in the hospital taking care of her, just as he’d done for every one of the 60 years they’d been married — right up until the night she passed.”

Billie Sims was a retired school teacher, and apparently quite the note-writer.

As her grandson wrote, “She was an avid note writer. Every photo on the walls of their home is meticulously documented. She wrote down funny things that happened or quotes she wanted to remember, all in the perfect cursive handwriting that could only belong to a school teacher.”

But the note Jimmy Breland found tucked inside the couple’s checkbook was special. In that “perfect cursive handwriting” that Billie’s grandson described, Billie penned a last few sentences to her husband Jimmy.

“Please don’t cry because I died! Smile because I lived! Know that I’m in a happy place! Know that we will meet again! I will see you there!”

The short message was enough to overwhelm Jimmy Breland with emotion, who was, of course, dealing with the pain and grief of losing the woman who had been by his side for more than 60 years.

“I’ll never forget the look in my granddad’s eyes when he showed the rest of our family the note — some tears, but a lot of smiles, too,” Sims told the Huffington Post. “That note will be a source of comfort and a reminder that love conquers everything, even death. There’s an indescribable peace that comes with knowing he’ll be reunited with her in eternity.”

The wife of soldier Pat Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan, would recognize the comfort Jimmy Breland received in getting one last love letter. Click here to read the touching words written to her by her husband before he died.

[Images via Huffington Post]