Physical ills are the taxes laid upon this wretched life; some are taxed higher, and some lower, but all pay something.
May you live as long as you are fit to live, but no longer, or, may you rather die before you cease to be fit to live than after!
All I can say, in answer to this kind queries [of friends] is that I have not the distemper called the Plague; but that I have allthe plagues of old age, and of a shattered carcase.