#tho the book doesn't say whom she wrote the letter to

[archduchessofnowhere]

Letter from Princess Maria Amelia of Brazil, dated June 4 of 1851, on the death of her grandmother Auguste Duchess of Leuchtenberg (née Princess of Bavaria):

I can't express to you the great pain I felt upon learning of the sudden, unexpected death of my beloved grandmama... Words are inexpressive to describe great and deep feelings... I cannot... The feeling of anguish I experienced, last year, saying goodbye to grandmama, it was a feeling then!… The feeling that I was seeing her, that I was hugging her for the last time! Grandmama was in such good health, when we left Munich, that it didn't occur to me! The fear of losing her… However, this misfortune, about which I would not have dared to dwell... it happened ! It's horrible, horrible! Let us not murmur. Let us resign ourselves to the will of God who wanted it this way…

Grandmama was reunited with her loved ones who preceded her in eternal bliss; and, reunited with those she loved, she enjoys an ineffable happiness with which God wanted to reward her high virtues, her inexhaustible goodness.

Almeida, Sylvia Lacerda Martins de (1973). Uma filha de D. Pedro I, Dona Maria Amélia

[Pictured: Princess Maria Amelia of Brazil, by Joseph Karl Stieler, circa 1850 (left), Auguste, Duchess of Leuchtenberg, by Joseph Karl Stieler, unknown date (right)]