That one had to keep a “good heart,” come what may, was Abigail’s lifelong creed. “A merry heart doeth good like medicine,” she loved to say, quoting Proverbs. “I hate to complain,” she now wrote. “No one is without difficulties, whether in high or low life, and every person knows best where their own shoe pinches.

With all of the Richmond Hill house sick, Abigail Adam’s “good heart” endured.

The most formidable first lady of all time?

McCullough, David. John Adams. United Kingdom, Simon & Schuster, 2001. pg 423