Love and Loss

Dear Diary,

Today is the date I will mourn for an eternity. My beautiful daughter, mother, and wife have been ripped from my palms, and even though each has left me with special reminders of life and the love we shared, I cannot help but cry. Nefertiti was my love, my life, my everything, and now she has been taken from me. For what purpose? I am not certain. She has been my amazing companion for years, raising our children alongside the many minor wives, like Kia, I have held, but none have ever compared to her beauty and elegance. We shared a special religious belief, she was my equal in the eyes of Aten. This is a moment that will forever stick in mind, no matter how much time will pass, I will never recover from such a loss…

I reach towards the Aten, begging him for mercy. How could this have happened? How could he take away my precious Wife and child? I have to hold my tongue. I must not speak harshly of the God. His plan for me is unclear, but I am aware that there is a purpose for what has happened. Perhaps, he found I paid too much attention to my family, that I have neglected my duties to him. There is only room enough in my heart to love and worship one being; Aten has made that clear with his extinction of my love. He will now be all I love. That must have been his plan. I must take my grief and use it for him. I was foolish to have thought the change of my birth name from “Amenhotep IV” to “Akhenaten”, in his honor would be sufficient to giving my full oath to serving the sun God. If only the beings from above would reach down and provide me aid with such dramatic news…

For the sake of the life we have shared, I must take this loss and turn it to love for the Aten. The God will see me through the hard times, and I will see to it that he is worshipped in the proper manner he deserves. All of Egypt will pray the name of the sun God, no other impostering Gods will be so much as thought of by my people. I will make point of it.

Akhenaten