"In this difficult and saddest moment of my life, the consolation I have is that the sadness and sorrow is tempered by the fact that she lived to be, at least 90 years of age. She had a large and happy family and very happy grand-children whom she always wanted. She died where she wanted to die. She had the satisfaction of seeing her grandchildren happy and prosperous in days when prosperity is getting rare. But all this does not reconcile me to losing her. She had been to me more than father and mother combined, since I lost my father at the age of 8. No loss, even that of my son who died in infancy which was a terrible blow to me as a father, has been quite so terrible as this."