Illness and Death
At the age of 16, Jack was in Versailles to study French in preparation for an entrance examination for Harvard University. His family was in England while his father served as the last U.S. Minister to Great Britain, before the position was retitled "Ambassador". Jack fell ill with blood poisoning after infection set in following surgery in Paris to lance a carbuncle that had formed under his arm. He was moved from France to England on January 16, 1890, where he was to have been seen by the noted physician Thomas John MacLagan. A second surgery was performed on February 27, 1890, though it gave no relief and Jack died six days later at the family residence.
After Jack's death, his father wrote, "We had a long & most anxious struggle and at times had hopes of saving our boy. It would have been done if it had depended only on his own marvelous pluck & patience now that the end has come, there is a great blank in our future lives & an affliction not to be measured."
Read more about this topic: Abraham Lincoln II
Famous quotes containing the words illness and, illness and/or death:
“... how I understand that love of living, of being in this wonderful, astounding world even if one can look at it only through the prison bars of illness and suffering! Plus je vois, the more I am thrilled by the spectacle.”
—Edith Wharton (1862–1937)
“The more I read and the more I talked to other parents of children with disabilities and normal children, the more I found that feelings and emotions about children are very much the same in all families. The accident of illness or disability serves only to intensify feelings and emotions, not to change them.”
—Judith Weatherly (20th century)
“I asked myself, “Is it going to prevent me from getting out of here? Is there a risk of death attached to it? Is it permanently disabling? Is it permanently disfiguring? Lastly, is it excruciating?” If it doesn’t fit one of those five categories, then it isn’t important.”
—Rhonda Cornum, United States Army Major. As quoted in Newsweek magazine, “Perspectives” page (July 13, 1992)