He was loyal while life lasted, but had been unable to write a letter for years before he died.

Their friendship did not need letters.
"The next day pneumonia developed itself in a portion of one lung and he seemed much sicker; evidently believed he was to die, and with difficulty made out to give a word or two of instructions to his children.

He did not know how to be sick, and desired to be dressed and sit up in his study, and as we had found that any attempt to regulate his actions lately was very annoying to him, and he could not be made to understand the reasons for our doing so in his condition, I determined that it would not be worth while to trouble and restrain him as it would a younger person who had more to live for.

He had lived free; his life was essentially spent, and in what must almost surely be his last illness we would not embitter the occasion by any restraint that was not absolutely unavoidable.
"He suffered very little, took his nourishment well, but had great annoyance from his inability to find the words which he wished for.

He knew his friends and family, but thought he was in a strange house.