Terry’s brief letter to Candy (Part 1)

I suppose many of you have heard of the song “Hello” by Adele. ❤ It describes someone trying to call her ex whose heart she had broken years ago. She wanted to apologize for breaking his heart and for everything she had done. Yet, she couldn’t find this person even after many attempts.

Guess what? This song reminds me of Terry’s ambiguous letter to Candy in Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS) 😉, but Terry didn’t apologize for breaking Candy’s heart. 😌 He just claimed that he hadn’t changed at all, one year and a half since an unnamed incident. Besides, for some reason, Terry had doubts his letter would reach Candy. Maybe he knew her living arrangement with Albert would cease upon Albert’s recovery, so by the time Terry wrote this letter, he figured Candy might have stopped renting the apartment.

Many fans assume Terry had remained unchanged roughly 18 months after Susanna’s death mainly because this letter was shown right after her obituary in CCFS. Needless to say, many are inclined to believe that Terry meant to inform Candy that he still loved her. What else did he mean?

Have you ever wondered though, if this is the case, what exactly did Terry want by sending such a brief letter to Candy? 😌😅 Did he expect her to have remained the same too? Or did he want her to come back to him? Did he hope that their love could be rekindled?

Anyway, how would you react if you were Candy? 😮

Regrettably, as I have said more than once, this popular belief actually sheds a negative light on Terry’s character. On one hand, you may think he’d been faithful to Candy, but on the other hand, this makes him appear cold-blooded.

Why? Imagine yourself living with someone who’s very ill. You may not be in love with this patient, but you couldn’t be completely unaffected by his/her dire conditions, right? Not to mention that you’re taking care of this patient, continuously supporting him or her for months.

In CCFS, it’s written that Terry was the one who stayed by Susanna’s side, taking care of her during her constant struggles with her illness. It’s unclear if he was the only one helping her cope with her sickness, but for sure he had been living with her as her fiancé till she passed away.

In other words, Terry couldn’t possibly act like a spectator, so how could he feel nothing at all when Susanna had been suffering? It sounds cruel if he claimed he had remained the same man after going through all these with her. Don’t you agree? 😐 Not to mention he should have been giving her mental support for some period of time. Please don’t tell me that he had merely pretended to be kind to her. 🙁 For details, please read Susanna and Candy (Part 2).

As a matter of fact, contrary to what most people think, Terry didn’t really hate Susanna, not in the manga nor in CCFS. After the accident during the rehearsal, he visited her of his own accord and bought her many flower bouquets despite being rejected by Susanna’s mother day after day. Come to think of it, without her heroic act, he could have lost his life or lost a limb like her. Thus, other than feeling sorry or somewhat guilty, I figure Terry must have been considerably touched by Susanna’s love and sacrifice for him.

See? That accident on the stage alone had significantly changed his attitude towards her.

In addition, although Terry didn’t see Susanna as a love interest, he wasn’t a fool whom anyone could easily manipulate. Don’t underestimate him, especially he was known to be a strong-willed, if not rebellious, man. When he was willing to fight for something, he would not shy from it, like the way he had dealt with his father and the way he had challenged the authorities at St. Paul’s Academy.

Unfortunately, Terry didn’t even fight for Candy. I suppose he chose Susanna over Candy after weighing his options, knowing that the glamorous actress needed him more than anyone. He had some struggles, yes, but it was his own decision in the end.

What’s more, Terry promised Susanna that he would stay by her side forever. Tremendously moved by his sacrifice, Susanna sent a letter of gratitude to Candy to thank her. In CCFS, Candy said this was the only letter she had got from Susanna. You think Terry didn’t know about this letter? Ok, perhaps he didn’t, but he should strive to keep his promise to the actress nonetheless.

Lately, when my friend and I discussed this famous letter, she raised some good points. According to some people, Candy had been patiently waiting for Susanna to leave Terry one day. If so, Candy must have remained single all this time. We all know how much Albert cared about Candy, and years ago he had strategically arranged Candy to “run into” Terry in Rockstown (for your interest, please read my fanfic, Reunion 😃). What makes you think Albert wouldn’t perform a similar trick this time? Somehow Albert must be able to lead Candy back to Terry after Susanna’s death if Albert knew her heart yearned to reunite with the Broadway actor.

How about Miss Eleanor Baker? If she was aware that her son hadn’t forgotten Candy at all despite living with Susanna for years, then what makes you think Miss Baker wouldn’t contact Candy on behalf of Terry? It’s not like Miss Baker hadn’t taken the initiative to talk to Candy for her son before. 😉

So either Albert or Miss Baker would do something behind the scenes to bring the lovebirds back together. Please don’t tell me that both Albert and Miss Baker had also wavered like Terry did. 😅

What about Candy herself? If she had been hoping Terry would become available to her again, wouldn’t she take some action herself after reading the obituary? I don’t suppose she’d wait for Terry to make the first move if she still loved him from the bottom of her heart. It’s a known fact that Candy was willing to do anything to chase after Terry, right? 😁

Therefore, the more my friend and I discussed this letter, the more convinced we are that the unnamed incident Terry implied in his brief letter to Candy was highly likely their breakup, not Susanna’s death. I have also expressed similar thoughts at the end of Chapter 7 of Peculiar Relationship, as shown below:

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In Candy Candy Final Story, Terry sent a brief letter to Candy without a date, but he wrote (CCFS Vol 2, P. 283):

…あれから一年たった。(…It has been a year since that.)

The mere fact that Terry used あれ (which means ‘that’) indicates that he referred to an incident that was familiar to both himself and Candy. People don’t always use あれ this way, but sometimes あれ can be used to hint at a rather sensitive or uncomfortable topic that one would prefer not to say it explicitly but both the speaker and the listener understand what it alludes to.

Therefore, I’m inclined to believe Terry meant their painful breakup at New York because he shouldn’t expect Candy to know the date of Susanna’s death by heart (as many have assumed). Like some of you have pointed out, about one year and a half since their breakup, it was possibly around Candy’s birthday, which might have triggered Terry to contact her.

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I’ll continue in Part 2. Please stay tuned. 😘