( CNN ) -- When U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated nearly 50 years ago , he left behind a nation stunned by grief and brimming with questions . After his death , people poured out their heartbreak in letters and telegrams to his widow , Jacqueline Kennedy . `` Letters to Jackie : Condolences from a Grieving Nation , '' a book by historian Ellen Fitzpatrick , highlights hundreds of the 1.5 million consolation letters sent to Jacqueline Kennedy . Young and old united in a grief that transcended racial , economic and political lines . Fitzpatrick combed through the archives of the JFK library to select about 250 condolence letters for the book . `` Dear Mrs. Kennedy , '' wrote 8-year-old Kevin Radell . `` I am very sorry your husband got shot . ... Know you should forgive your enemies , but it is hard to forgive Lee Oswald . '' Oswald , the accused assassin , was fatally shot days later . `` It was terrifying , '' a now-grown Radell said of the president 's death . `` It was just a convergence of emotions -- of fear , because he was such a protector of the nation and such a leader , and we all loved him . He was a fatherly figure . '' Radell 's sentiment years later is a common theme in the letters . `` One woman compared the assassination of President Kennedy with the crucifixion , '' Fitzpatrick said . `` She said that 'they killed our Lord and Father , and now they have killed our president and father . ' '' Martha Ross , the daughter of a slave , wrote of the closeness she felt with the president and addressed his two children in her letter , saying their father was `` my friend . '' `` You know even those people that did n't like him ... loved him , '' said Winston Lucky , Ross 's grandson . `` He was a strong man . My grandmother , she always talked about that he was going to help set this country right . '' One letter from a cabdriver ends with a question : `` Why , why I 'm still asking myself why ? '' the driver writes . A month after the president was shot in Dallas , Texas , on Nov. 22 , 1963 , Jacqueline Kennedy acknowledged the letters . `` All of you who have written to me know how much we loved him , and he would return that love , '' she said in December . Kennedy was president from 1961 to 1963 . Jacqueline Kennedy died in 1994 . At her funeral , her son summed her up in one sentence : `` Love of words , the bonds of home and family , and her spirit of adventure . ''
8 letters were sent to Lee Oswald ' after Jacqueline Kennedy 's assassination . New book highlights 1.5 million letters ; people 's grief transcended racial , economic , political lines . Boy , 1.5 million , wrote : `` I am very sorry your husband got shot ... hard to forgive Lee Oswald '