Better one crowded hour, she said softly, pleaded. Better to die a hero than live a coward. For your children's tomorrows, give your today.
After months of practise, she could almost say the words without feeling the sting of tears. It was what Sam had said to her, one night over dinner as he'd outlined his plan to join up. That it was often so, in times such as that. To save a thing, someone had to give it up. He'd heard it from Mr Frodo, of course. And if Mr Frodo was willing to do that, to be the one to give it up, then Sam was too.
And she was proud. She was proud of her husband, so steady and brave and unflinching in such a hard time. Nobody was able to put a white feather in Rose Gamgee's mailbox.
But every night that she stood before those village crowds of boys and men, she'd end up catching the eye of a mother or a wife or a sister out amongst the men. And the gaze of that woman, that sister in loss, would echo the thought running through Rose's heart every moment of every day.
Please, don't let it be my lovely one who has to give things up, who lives but one crowded hour and never comes back to me.
~