Mary Todd Lincoln was no stranger to tragedy, even before her husband’s assassination. The Lincolns lost one son, Eddie, at age three. Then, in their White House years, they lost eleven-year-old Willie to typhoid fever.
Mary, already prone to depression, sank into black despair at Willie’s death. She stayed in bed for weeks, unable to cope with daily life, let alone the duties of a First Lady.
According to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, in her book Team of Rivals, Mary’s healing came about in a surprising way: She developed the habit of visiting the wounded soldiers in the city’s hospitals.
She went daily, taking baskets of fruit, including the lemons and oranges needed to prevent scurvy. She placed flowers on pillows to counteract the stench of decaying flesh. She read to soldiers, wrote letters for them. And she didn’t publicise the visits, though she could have used some good press.
One soldier discovered her identity only after the letter she had written to his mother arrived with her signature on it. Mary told a friend who accompanied her on these visits that without these “humane employments” her own heart would have broken irreparably after the death of her child.
Often it’s through ministering to others that we find our own healing and happiness…
Reference: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (Simon & Schuster, 2005), pp. 456-459
From: http://www.illustrationsforsermons.com/
Image courtesy: https://www.friendsofthelincolncollection.org/