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St. Louis, April 20th / 53

Dear Brother Nathan,

We have to day returned from Galesburg; found your letter awaiting us, have perused it and now hasten not only according to request but according also to inclination to answer it. We started to visit Raymond and Abby on the 11th, reached there on the 14th & remained until the 18th. Achsah returned from visiting them just before we started. We found Abby very feeble, a mere skeleton, a living corpse (if I may use the expression) but just as quiet, amiable, patient and uncomplaining as ever. You would hardly know her she is so changed. I could not control my feelings when I met her and gazed upon her although I had resolved I would do so, I found her so unlike her former self, so unlike what she was when I last saw her. She has not spoken aloud for a number of weeks, is obliged to sit straight in her chair all the day long without leaning against anything and at night has to be bolstered up and reclines a little upon her