Pat Tillman’s Final Words To Widow: ‘I Ask That You Live’

June 24 2012, Published 3:00 p.m. ET

Pat Tillman wanted his wife to get on with her life if he ever died while serving in the U.S. Army, his widow has revealed.

In a new memoir, Marie Tillman, 35, has opened up for the first time about the one letter from her husband that she never hoped to read.

Before he we was deployed to Iraq in 2003, the NFL star wrote a “just in case” letter for her to open only if he died.

In April 2004, after he was killed by friendly fire while serving in Afghanistan, Marie read the note, and has now included it in her book.

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In it Pat wrote, “Through the years I’ve asked a great deal of you, therefore it should surprise you little that I have another favor to ask. I ask that you live.”

Marie documents her life with the former Arizona Cardinals star in her book, The Letter: My Journey Through Love, Loss and Life. The high school sweethearts wrote letters to each other throughout their relationship.

Marie has since remarried and has a five-month-old son. She tells the New York Post that she did not want focus on Tillman’s death, saying “that is not the story I wanted to tell.”