A sad loss

I just finished reading Grant's Final Victory, about President Grant's last year of life.  It was truly a heroic year.  Having been swindled out of just about everything he owned by men he had trusted, Grant determined to  write and publish his memoirs so that Julia, his wife, would have enough money to live on.  Grant had esophageal cancer and knew he had not much time.

Grant's illness was extremely painful.  In the end he could no longer speak.  But day after painful day, he worked on his memoirs.  When he had finished them, using his last ounce of strength, he died.