February, Thursday 14. 1884.

X

The light has gone out of my life.

On February 14, 1884, Theodore Roosevelt received a terrible blow—both his wife and mother died within hours of one another in the Roosevelt house in New York City. His mother, age 50, succumbed to typhus, and his wife Alice died at the age of 22 giving birth to her namesake. The following diary entries lovingly describe his courtship, wedding, happiness in marriage, and his grief over the death of his wife Alice, after which he never spoke of the union again.