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Lexington May 15th 1833

My dear son

I have no doubt you think strange of my silence, and well you may as this is the first time in my life that I did not answer your letters in a few days after receiving them. It is but a few days since it was possible
for me to write, in consequence of a very ill state of health. When I got your letter of March (I have forgotten the date) I was then confined to my bed, and had been for two weeks not able to raise my head
off my pillow without assistance and I remaned three weeks more in the same condition. After I recovered sufficiently to sit up or walk, it was very painful for me to write read think or talk. The seat of
my disease was in my head. I suffered very much indeed. I was much lower then I ever was in my life. Your Uncle Thomas was very kind to me, and had every medical assistance procured for me that
was necessary. There is nothing that I would not do to serve him, he has been my best friend on earth. I am very much inclined to say, he is my only genuine friend. The state of my health is yet so {impaired}
that I find it extremely painful to attend to my domestic concerns. Nothing is so greatefull to my feelings as quiet and retirement. But I cannot have either whilst I am in my present situation.