I do not remember any single act of wilful disobedience to her wishes.

When my father died I was so passionately attached to my mother that I can recollect that, deeply though I felt his loss, my grief was all but forbidden by the thought that it was not my mother who had been taken from me.
And yet one of the regrets that has followed me to the present hour is that I did not sufficiently value the treasure while I possessed it, and that I did not with sufficient tenderness and assiduity at the time, attempt the impossible task of repaying the immeasurable debt I owed to that mother's love.
"She was certainly one of the most unselfish beings it has been my lot to come into contact with.

'Never mind me' was descriptive of her whole life at every time, in every place, and under every circumstance.

To make others happy was the end of all her thoughts and aims with regard not only to her children but to her domestics, and indeed to all who came within her influence.

To remove misery was her delight.