Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Such Devotion

I have been reading Julia Dent Grant's memoirs and have been quite surprised and touched by what I have learned. According to all sources that I had heretofore read, General Grant was an alcoholic and a very bad man... I find it interesting that Mrs. Grant, upon her husband's nomination for presidency, was told,
"The fact is, that you will be surprised to learn what a bad man you have for a husband." And she was surprised, but she grew used to it.
The devotion between the General and Mrs. Grant places their love in the great loves of the world. The last paragraph in her book attests to this.

" For nearly thirty-seven years, I, his wife, rested and was warmed in the sunlight of his loyal love and great fame, and now, even though his beautiful life has gone out, it is as when some far-off planet disappears from the heavens; the light of his glorious fame still reaches out to me, falls upon me, and warms me."

Such devotion...such love...

Please, do read this book. It is titled, "The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant" by the same.

It reminds me of the story Marmee would tell from time to time about an elderly woman whom she met on a plane flight many years ago. The woman had married a man many, many years her Senior, yet she had chosen not to remarry when he died, leaving her a young widow. "Why?" Marmee asked. "Because," the woman replied, "he was so wonderful; I never met another who was so wonderful."

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