On Thursday evening, February 20, 1862, William “Willie“ Wallace Lincoln, the third son of Mary and Abraham Lincoln, died in the heavily purple and yellow draped Prince of Wales guest bedroom.

Lincoln dealt with his grief but soon found his way back to conducting the Civil War and the nation’s business.

Mary Lincoln, on the other hand, was inconsolable for months. Willie was the second of four sons the Lincolns would lose, and after Lincoln’s assassination, Mary would lose Thomas “Tad” Lincoln.

On this anniversary of Willie Lincoln’s death, I feel Mrs. Lincoln’s deep agony all the more.