Unsent Letter to Maxine Sanders from Alex Sanders, document 1676

Typed personal heartfelt letter from Alex Sanders to Maxine Sanders. This letter was never sent to Maxine and was found amongst Alex's belongings when he died. Maxine Sanders verified this letter 01/10/2018

1676 Chantry Cottage, Old Town, Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, 23rd of August '82 Maxine Sanders, 15 Clanricarde Gardens, Bayswater, London W2 Dear Maxine, With windswept days and stormy nights, the autumn begins to make her careworn entrance, yet summer lingers still in the heavy scent of roses and the sullen heat of an afternoon. In these days, at once both restless for the future and yet filled with memories, it seems perhaps the Bluebird is resting quite near, before, like the swallows who begin to gather, he speeds westwards, a haunting companion for your travels. I do not look too closely or trust too much lest my quickening thought disturb that fragile repose. I cannot bear to say goodbyes, thinking that the star which guides your destiny will take you forever from the paths my life must follow. Too often I have turned myself away from you, not having courage to say, "I do not know" — [word/phrase uncertain, possibly "vow"]. Always I have despised my earthbound spirit, which could not ever reach the lowest of the heights wherein your work is done and soul refreshed. And yet I have not used that gift of earth, which is constancy, to nurture this sick heart of mine that might bear a love that is more worthy of you. Can it be that eight and a half years have passed and still I remain dumb when words sing in my head, I do nothing while a thousand deeds present themselves to me? The leaves of spring burn to ashes, and my broken promises and empty words are singed with them in the smoke. It is the season of fires and ashes. Soon the ripening corn will be gathered in, and the fields, scarred by the blackened stubble. Yet when the ashes are cool, from them will spring the new corn, young and tender. So many words, wrong actions, and my greatest sins (those of omission). All these are seared to dust at the falling of this year, when regrets and goodbyes fill the air like the morning mists of Sussex. But green and tender like the corn are my words, and ready to bear a harvest as fruitful. They spring from that part of me I have yet to know, and with integrity I will hold them true and bright, a star created for the child I am, as yet unborn. I love you. Alex Notes: - The website's own record for this document notes it as verified by Maxine Sanders herself in 2018 — a genuinely authenticated piece of correspondence, not just an assumed attribution. - The return address, "Chantry Cottage, Old Town, Bexhill-on-Sea," matches the address used in MoW_Doc1679.pdf (the Thatcher letter) and MoW_Doc6400a-b.pdf (the postcard to John Ryan) — now confirmed across three separate documents. - Maxine's address, "15 Clanricarde Gardens, Bayswater," is the exact same address on the mock envelope in MoW_Doc1687.pdf ("The King" letter reclaiming Alex's authority from Maxine) — confirming both documents relate to the same period and the same two people, though this letter (dated 23 August 1982) is notably tender and regretful in tone, a striking contrast to the confrontational tone of Doc 1687. - "The Bluebird" may allude to Maurice Maeterlinck's 1908 play "The Blue Bird" (L'Oiseau bleu), in which the bluebird is a symbol of happiness that proves elusive — though this connection is not stated explicitly in the letter itself. Authorship note: This document is a personal letter written entirely in Alex Sanders' own voice, addressed to Maxine Sanders and signed "Alex." Straightforward single authorship: Alex Sanders.