Later that year, Mary Lou wrote to the author to ask about a trip to Cuba that summer. Hemingway, who was filming The Old Man and the Sea, sent back a lengthy reply. After two recent plane crashes, the Nobel Prize winner ponders life and death In October of 1955, Mary Lou again reached out to Hemingway. He responded with another typed letter, this one referring to his fear of flying, manifested in his recent, nearly deadly crashes while on safari, as well as big game hunting, hurricanes, and a commentary on death and, remarkably, his belief in the afterlife. He urged her to be careful. “No second thoughts will help you and when you are dead you are dead for a long time.”