It’s May 7th, Candy’s birthday! 😀 Regrettably, I don’t have time this year to do anything special to celebrate, but I did change my profile picture on my Facebook page, using parts of my drawing for Evelyn. 😀 Yet, let me share some good news with you all. locksleyu has recently published his unofficial translation (from Japanese to English) of the first part of Chapter 1 of Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS) on his blog. For your interest, he has also translated the prologue some time ago.
Now, concerning this famous letter in CCFS, I’ve already explained in Part 1 why Terry would have been a cold-hearted guy if he had indeed claimed that Susanna’s death had not affected him whatsoever. 🤔Then in Part 2, I explained why this letter could have been written long before their breakup. For example, Terry might remember the ‘anniversary’ of their first kiss (May festival), so he thought of writing a letter to Candy some time after he had settled down in New York as an actor in Stratford but before the great war. What’s more, due to the complete lack of emotions, the uncertainty of his letter reaching Candy, and his signature as T.G., I have reasons to believe he had attempted to send it to her at St. Paul’s Academy.
The questions are: (1) Had Candy received this letter at all? (2) If so, when? 🙂
Reeka and some other ladies have brilliant insights and imagination of when and how Candy might receive this particular letter under what circumstances, so I urge you to read their marvelous comments to Part 2 when you have a chance. 😊
You might ask me, “So, what do you think?” 😀
First, if I’m not mistaken, Candy had not uttered a single word about this letter in her present nor in any of her letters to others, including her unsent letters to Terry, one written after knowing that Terry had paid a visit to Pony’s Home on a winter day and the other written to congratulate Terry on his success as Hamlet. Both letters were written at Pony’s Home without being sent, and Candy didn’t say anything about having received a brief letter from him while being apart. Therefore, I don’t think he had addressed to Pony’s Home, or else Candy’s foster mothers would have mentioned it to her.
Some people even suspected that Candy had never received the letter. 🤔 I won’t rule out this possibility. However, because there are other letters in CCFS that Candy didn’t comment either, I suppose she had received this letter from Terry, but not until long after the discovery that Albert was her Prince on the Hill.
Why? I have a feeling that Candy was totally unaware of this letter from Terry when going to Lakewood with her Prince on the Hill. She didn’t bring it up when she was writing a very long letter to Albert and a mental letter to Anthony after the day trip.
In fact, my speculation is that Candy didn’t get Terry’s letter from St Paul’s Academy till some time after knowing that Susanna had passed away. This brief letter was displayed right after her obituary in CCFS for a reason after all. It might be a hint or a trick from Mizuki, depending on which angle you look at it. 🙄😌
My point is, it doesn’t really matter when and how exactly Candy got Terry’s letter because chronologically, their breakup took place afterwards. Thus, it wouldn’t alter the fact that they had made the decision to go separate paths on a snowy night in New York. That very night, Candy had to face the painful reality that Terry was no longer a free man; he owed another woman his life. Regardless of his letter content, he had changed a lot due to Susanna’s sacrifice for him. He had even chosen her over Candy, the girl who should be strong enough to survive without him. As a result, Candy bid farewell to him, as shown in the manga scene here. (Many thanks to Reeka for taking this picture for my post! 💖❤)
Since then, Candy had completely changed! No longer a girl who chased after Terry, she had remained firm in her resolve not to see or talk to him again. She didn’t waver even when she ran into him by chance in Rockstown. If you read her reply to Miss Eleanor Baker carefully, Candy was more disappointed (if not vexed) than sad that Terry had ended up like that. Despite feeling confused back then, Candy didn’t have any regrets of leaving the roadside theatre without talking to him.
Come to think of it, in her thirties, Candy didn’t tell us if this brief letter from Terry was really in her damascene jewelry box. Remember that Candy did talk about his previous letters to her all bundled up and she’d rather not look at them yet? Elsewhere in CCFS (in her unsent letter to him) she even complained that she wished to get romantic letters from him but he had only teased her, always addressing her as Tarzan Freckles. Not once did she mention about him trying to reach her by writing a letter, in which he actually called her ‘Candy’, not her nickname.
Besides, not everything shown in CCFS Part III was retrieved from inside the jewelry box. For example, Candy mentioned Susanna’s obituary because she had memorized it, but I don’t think Candy had actually kept it with her.
In light of all this, getting this letter from Terry written so long ago wouldn’t make much of an impact in Candy’s life. This is similar to getting the invitation from Terry’s mom; it didn’t cause Candy to change her mind. Because she was totally aware that Terry belonged to Susanna, and with the support from Albert, Candy had undoubtedly moved on for a considerably long time. She herself admitted all that in her unsent letter to Terry.
On the other hand, if indeed this letter implied Terry’s reunion with Candy, she in her present time would have said something like “opening this letter was the turning point…” or “my patience all these years paid off at long last…” 🙄
Even if not, the epilogue should be about the times she spent with Terry or Terry taking concrete steps to make amends or woo Candy, don’t you think? 🙄 At the very least, there should be hints that either Candy or Terry would make an attempt to contact each other.
Yet, the epilogue had nothing to do with Terry. Instead, it’s mainly the correspondence between Candy and her Prince on the Hill, who opened up himself to her. Even when Terry’s name was directly mentioned (only once in 40+ pages), it was about Candy’s diary (her past), which she determined not to revisit. Need I say more? 😝😜
Thus, contrary to popular belief, this brief letter from Terry is not that significant at all. Its existence doesn’t make much of a difference to the story plot nor the two main characters. All in all, CCFS began with a heartbreaking incident, Annie’s departure, which led Candy to her prince, and CCFS ends with Candy being in love with her prince. ❤ ❤ ❤ By then, he was the man who had captured her heart and occupied her mind and thoughts. Her mental letter to Anthony is a solid proof.
Before I conclude this short series, I can’t help showing you a screenshot from a magazine article that I read about an interview of Adele. She compared her partner (who is at least 14 years older) to her ex boyfriends who had inspired some of her biggest hits (click the thumbnail to see the original picture):
“… There’s a big difference. My man is a man. All the other boys I’ve been with, they’re boys… I’m done now. I’ve found it.” (read her words in the bottom right corner)