THE widow of a Scots soldier killed in Afghanistan over two years ago still has not opened the last four letters her husband sent to her.
Corporal Sean Binnie, of Kirkcaldy, Fife, sent the letters to his wife Amanda but they did not reach her until days after his death in May 2009.
Mrs Binnie read one letter at her husband’s grave on her birthday in June 2009.
The letter said: “I miss you like mad. Not being with you is driving me crazy. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you…”
But it was too much for the young widow, who had only been married for six months, and the other four letters still remain unopened.
She said: “I haven’t been able to read the others yet.”
Sean, an acting sergeant with the Black Watch 3rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, was killed during an ambush near Musa Qaleh in Helmand Province in Afghanistan.
According to an account by his commanding officer, the 22-year-old volunteered to help soldiers in trouble during a fierce firefight as they trained Afghan soldiers.
Without concern for his own safety Sean moved towards Taliban soldiers hurling grenades.
He was shot by a gunman hiding in a doorway.
A ceremony took place at Kirkcaldy War Memorial at the weekend where his name has been added to the roll of honour.
Mrs Binnie is now hoping that Sean’s death will encourage more people to think about ex-service people and their families in the run up to Remembrance Day.
As an ambassador for the charity Poppyscotland, her story is being told in leaflets delivered across Scotland with recipients encouraged to plant a Remembrance Cross with a personal message in the Edinburgh field of Remembrance.
Mrs Binnie said she would be planting a cross in the Field of Remembrance in Belfast where she lived and she shared a poem she wrote in tribute to Sean.
