In April, 1800, she stated that "again the pestilence had emptied the city; again every source of industry was dried up; even the streams of benevolence from the country failed. Those storehouses, from which relief was issued to thousands in former calamities, now disappointed their hopes; and those spared by the pestilence were ready to perish by the famine. Such widows as had no friends in the country, under whose roof they might for a time seek shelter, were shut up to the only relief within their power, even to that society which had formerly saved them in many a strait. They came, were received with tenderness, assisted with, food, advice, and medicine. "Four of the society's board, at the risk of their lives, remained in the city, steady in the exercise of their office. One hundred and forty-two widows, with four hundred and six children, under twelve years of age, by far the greater part under six, have, from time to time, during the winter, been visited and relieved. Widow is a word of sorrow in the best of circumstances; but a widow left poor, destitute, friendless, surrounded with a number of small children, shivering with cold, pale with want, looking in her face with eyes pleading for bread which she has not to give, nor any probable prospect of procuring--her situation is neither to be described nor conceived. Many such scenes were witnessed during the last winter; and though none could restore the father and the husband, the hearts of the mourners were soothed by the managers, while they dispensed the relief provided for them by their Father and their Husband, God." In the summer of 1800, Mrs. Graham again visited her friends in Boston, whence she wrote her daughter Mrs. B---- as follows: "BOSTON, August, 1800. "I yesterday received my dear J----'s letter, which gives fresh cause for thankfulness. The more my absence is lengthened, the less I am able to support the want of intelligence. Let us all bless God together for all his mercies: among those which are temporal, health is the chief; and I believe to most mothers it is more valued in their children than in their own persons. I rejoice with you over our restored J----y. O that our covenant God may give the more important blessing of divine life. You had need to be importunate for this, after the importunity exercised for natural life. I thank God also for the alleviation of your own distress, for our dear D----'s restoration from complaints less alarming so far as they existed, but which might have been the seeds of serious affliction.