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[00:00.97]Chapter 7 The Last Letter
[00:07.46]Six months later, in April 1890,
[00:12.80]I found him dead in bed.
[00:16.61]He was on his back in bed,
[00:19.37]so at first I thought he was asleep.
[00:22.93]I talked to him, but he did not move.
[00:26.89]Then I saw that the skin on his face was blue,
[00:32.17]so I knew he was dead.
[00:35.57]He did not usually sleep on his back.
[00:38.97]His enormous head was very heavy,
[00:42.07]so he usually sat up in bed with his arms round his legs,
[00:47.14]and his head on his knees.
[00:49.90]He could sleep well like this.
[00:53.16]But he wanted to sleep on his back like you and me.
[00:57.52]He tried to sleep on his back that night,
[01:00.97]but his heavy head came off the bed,
[01:04.32]and he broke his neck. He died very quickly.
[01:09.95]Next day, the Chairman of the London Hospital,
[01:13.68]Mr Carr Gomm, wrote to the editor of The Times again.
[01:20.23]The Times, April 16th, 1890
[01:26.67]Dear Sir,
[01:29.41]Three and a half years ago
[01:31.95]I wrote to you about a man called Joseph Merrick.
[01:37.18]This man was called 'The Elephant Man'
[01:41.65]because he was born with a very ugly body.
[01:46.56]Merrick was not ill, but he could not work,
[01:51.05]and he had no money.
[01:54.08]The readers of The Times felt sorry for him,
[01:58.11]and they gave me a lot of money for Merrick.
[02:02.55]Because of this money,
[02:04.59]we could give Merrick a home in the London Hospital.
[02:09.01]It was his first good home,
[02:11.79]and for three and a half years he lived here happily.
[02:17.22]The doctors and nurses of the hospital helped him,
[02:21.23]and many important people visited him.
[02:25.60]He read many books, he went to the theatre,
[02:30.27]and in the summer he stayed in the country for six weeks.
[02:35.92]Because of your readers' money,
[02:38.57]we could give him a happy life.
[02:43.03]Last night Joseph Merrick died quietly in his bed.
[02:49.83]He was a man with a very ugly body,
[02:53.17]but he was a good, kind man,
[02:56.58]and he had a lot of friends.
[02:59.58]We liked to talk to him, and we are all very sorry because he is dead.
[03:06.16]A lot of people are going to remember him for a longtime.
[03:12.24]There is some money left, so I am going to give it to the hospital.
[03:18.02]Thank you, sir, for your help.
[03:21.27]Yours faithfully
[03:23.33]F. C. Carr Gomm
[03:26.01]Chairman of The London Hospital