Words are so empty!  If only I knew how to fill them with love and
    send them to you.

Or: 

    If love and thoughts could only help you, Margaret dear, you
    should have all the strength of both that I can give.

Letter Where Death Was Release

The letter to one whose loss is “for the best” is difficult in that you want to express sympathy but can not feel sad that one who has long suffered has found release.  The expression of sympathy in this case should not be for the present death, but for the illness, or whatever it was that fell long ago.  The grief for a paralysed mother is for the stroke which cut her down many years before, and your sympathy, though you may not have realized it, is for that.  You might write: 

    Your sorrow during all these years—­and now—­is in my heart; and
    all my thoughts and sympathy are with you.

=HOW TO ADDRESS IMPORTANT PERSONAGES=

===============+=====================+=================

===========+=============
| If you              |                            | Formal
| are speaking,       |                            | beginning of
| you say:             | Envelope addressed:         | a letter: 
---------------+---------------------+----------------------

------+-------------
The President  | Mr. President       | The President of the       | Sir: 
| And occasionally    | United States              |
| throughout a        |    or merely               |
| conversation,       | The President,             |
| Sir.                | Washington, D.C.           |
|                     | (There is only one         |
|                     | “President”)               |
|                     |                            |
|                     |                            |
---------------+---------------------+----------------------

------+-------------
The            | Mr. Vice-President  | The Vice-President,        | Sir: 
Vice-President | and then, Sir.      | Washington, D.C.           |
|                     |                            |
---------------+---------------------+----------------------

------+-------------
Justice of     | Mr. Justice         | The Hon. William H. Taft,  | Sir: 
Supreme Court  |                     | Chief Justice of the       |
|                     | Supreme Court,             |
|                     | Washington, D.C.           |
|                     |                            |
|                     |                            |
---------------+---------------------+----------------------

------+-------------
Member of the  | Mr. Secretary       | The Secretary of Commerce, | Dear Sir: 
President’s    |                     | Washington, D.C.   or:      | or
Cabinet        |                     | The Hon. Herbert Hoover,   | Sir: 
|                     | Secretary of Commerce,     |
|                     | Washington, D.C.           |
---------------+---------------------+----------------------

------+-------------