On aging and family

"We often write seldomest to those whom we love the most.  The distance to which I am removed has given a new value to all I valued before in my country, and the day of my return will be the  happiest I expect to see in this life……

I find as I grow older that I love those most whom I loved first.”  

 [Thomas Jefferson writing from Paris France to his sister, Mary Jefferson Bolling, July 23, 1787]

 (Thomas Jefferson: and intimate history, Fawn Brody)