Eric Clapton Once Received a Heartbreaking Letter From His Deceased Son

Classic rock legend Eric Clapton experienced a tragedy when his 4-year-old son, Conor, died in a tragic accident. But in the days that followed, Clapton received a surprise in the form of a letter from his late son. Sadly, it was the first and last time he had received a note from Conor. What did it say?

Eric Clapton’s son changed his life before he died

According to Clapton, Conor was his reason for sobriety. He said the birth of his son made him want to be a better person, and it was what he needed to get on the right path after his marriage to Pattie Boyd ended.

But Conor’s life was tragically short, and he died after falling approximately 50 stories from an apartment building window in 1991. Clapton was staying nearby and later revealed a crowd gathered around Conor as he walked by to enter the building where his ex-girlfriend lived.

In an interview with Ed Bradley, available on YouTube, he said he was “too frightened” to go to Conor, which was a “terrible thing of shame” for him. He offered, “I’ll never, perhaps, recover from [it].”

But Clapton received a reminder of his son’s love for him days after the accident, thanks to a forgotten letter.

Eric Clapton received a letter from his son after his funeral

After Clapton returned to London and had a funeral for Conor, he received an unforgettable piece of mail. In an interview with Liz Barnes (per Daily Mail), Conor’s mother, Lory Del Santo, opened up about the moment.

“The baby had learned to write a few words,” she shared. “… He said to me, ‘Oh mummy, I want to write a letter to daddy, what shall I write?’ I told him, ‘Well, write, I love you.'”

She added, “He wrote that, and we posted it like a regular letter.”

Notably, she was present when Clapton received Conor’s love note at his home in the United Kingdom. “After Conor died, Eric and I arrived in London for the funeral. I was there when Eric received his mail just after the funeral,” she recalled. “And he opened it up, and it was Conor’s letter.”

Fortunately, Clapton maintained his sobriety after the tragedy, spending a year in Antigua living in a small community with little outside contact. He told Barnes all he could do was play music “again and again and again and again until” he could come out again.

What happened the day Eric Clapton’s son, Conor, died?

Conor was home with his mother on the day he died, and a housekeeper reportedly left a window open after cleaning it.

“He went in this room, opened the door,” Del Santo said (per ABC News). “As soon as I entered the room and I see the window. Where can he be?”

Clapton later wrote “Tears in Heaven” about the tragedy, but also a lesser-known song called “Circus” about taking Conor to the circus the night before he died. Del Santo concluded of their son, “He was an angel, I think. Really, he was.”