My Heroes... Martha Wayles Jefferson

I did not know she'd lost and infant son and been a widow for four years when she married Thomas Jefferson, at the age of twenty-three. Jefferson was twenty-six. Other biographers have written more extensively of this remarkable woman. In 1779, she was forced to flee with her two-month old child, from the British. The child didn't survive. Her husband was in constant danger. It's believed it broke her. She birthed a child in May and died in September, 1782. I wonder if she suffered postpartum depression, along with the other complications in her life. Their oldest daughter, Mrs. Mary Randolph, shared a great deal with the early biographer. During those months, Jefferson was always near. If not in the room, then in an adjoining room at the foot of the bed with the door open. Mrs. Randolph shared her experiences of accompanying her father and witnessing his grief.