“We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat.  They do not exist.”

Queen Victoria

Love is an action verb that has the energy and means to influence the course of our personal histories.  And from time to time it has changed the world.

Alexandrina Victoria, Queen Victoria fell deeply in love with her distant cousin, Prince Albert.  They met in 1839 and married in 1840.  She bore him nine children over the course of 18 years. He became her adviser, confidante and best friend.  His opinion was the one she respected above all others.   They were inseparable. When Prince Albert died in 1861 of typhoid fever, Queen Victoria withdrew from public view.  She carried out her constitutional duties, but she never recovered from the death of her much-loved prince.

Abigail and her husband John Adams, the second President of the United States, were well matched in intellect, audacity and perseverance.  Married in 1764, their love affair lasted more than 50 years during a time of great upheaval and war. Their mutual respect was strong and weathered long periods of separation. When Abigail joined her husband in state duties, he considered her a valued partner and trusted counsellor.  When John finished his presidency in 1801, they spent their remaining 17 years together at their farm in Quincy, Massachusetts.

“If we mean to have Heroes, Statesmen and Philosophers, we should have learned women. The world perhaps would laugh at me, and accuse me of vanity, but you I know have a mind too enlarged and liberal to disregard the Sentiment. If much depends as is allowed upon the early Education of youth and the first principals which are instill’d take the deepest root, great benefit must arise from literary accomplishments in women. ”

Abigail Adams, The Letters of John and Abigail Adams