Mary Todd Lincoln's Cell

[L Verge]

The reporter's comments seem more realistic to me, so I'll calm down a bit. Is it just me, or does it appear that all the furniture in that bedroom has been pushed together in a tight space? Were they polishing the floors in the rest of the room when that photo was taken?

For a woman such as Mary, who had been active all of her life and who enjoyed traveling, confinement in a small space (no matter how elegant) would have been very difficult and, I suspect, would have led to some of her "mental issues." I also suspect that laudanum was prescribed for her repeatedly to keep her calm -- much like what some questionable nursing homes do to the elderly today. My mother was in a very reputable one for six months of rehab after poor military medical treatment. A CVS pharmacist and I became good friends as I monitored what medicines were being prescribed for her by the nursing home's doctor - since her own physician was not allowed to attend her.

Tranquilizers and anti-depressants come under a wide variety of names, and I'm not sure that all doctors know how they interact with other drugs, etc. The nursing station did not want to give me the names of the drugs she was taking, but a power of attorney and the threat of a lawsuit (plus reminding the administrators who is paying the bill) works wonders. My mother was a self-pay because the military did not cover rehab and nursing care and neither she nor my father had Social Security benefits -- a long story on how the system allowed people to slip through the cracks. Okay, off my soap box.....