p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"Alexander Hamilton had always known he would die young./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"Frankly, it was a miracle he hadn't already. As a child, he lived on a small island in the Caribbean called St. Croix. His father abandoned him at an early age, but his mother made up for the space that he refused to occupy. She was his best friend, and the most wonderful person the world had ever known. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"They lived a quiet life on the coast together as she taught him to read and write while she washed and dried the laundry for what seemed to be the entire island. By the time he reached the age of 12, he could keep up with the highest level of his mother's education, and she praised him at every turn. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"When she fell ill beyond repair, Alex stayed at her bedside, only leaving briefly to replace her bedsheets or to wet the cold compress for her forehead. There was no reason for him to leave anyway, for the rain had been relentless since the day his mother became sick. It seemed that the worse the storm raged on, the more plagued she became as well./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"Finally, just as the storm reared its head, his mother drew in her last breath. The sun began to peek out from behind the clouds as she laid motionless on her deathbed. Folks from the island and passersby at the house would tell the story for months about the way Alexander wailed in agony at the loss of his mother, the only person he was ever sure that he truly loved./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"Rachel Hamilton lived to be 32, and Alexander Hamilton was sure he would not live a day longer than she had. He was meant to be something great, of that he was certain, but it would ultimately be cut short, as there was no way he could ever expect to live longer than her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"Perhaps even more important than his life expectancy was the creed he adopted after she died. He would not fall in love. If he had a child, it would not be until he was in his 30s, leaving no room for the child to remember him at all. He would never let any child of his own go through what he had gone through, and he would not leave his wife with the pain of losing someone she truly loved./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"He would be great, but he would become great alone. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"Frankly, it was a miracle he hadn't already. As a child, he lived on a small island in the Caribbean called St. Croix. His father abandoned him at an early age, but his mother made up for the space that he refused to occupy. She was his best friend, and the most wonderful person the world had ever known. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"They lived a quiet life on the coast together as she taught him to read and write while she washed and dried the laundry for what seemed to be the entire island. By the time he reached the age of 12, he could keep up with the highest level of his mother's education, and she praised him at every turn. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"When she fell ill beyond repair, Alex stayed at her bedside, only leaving briefly to replace her bedsheets or to wet the cold compress for her forehead. There was no reason for him to leave anyway, for the rain had been relentless since the day his mother became sick. It seemed that the worse the storm raged on, the more plagued she became as well./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"Finally, just as the storm reared its head, his mother drew in her last breath. The sun began to peek out from behind the clouds as she laid motionless on her deathbed. Folks from the island and passersby at the house would tell the story for months about the way Alexander wailed in agony at the loss of his mother, the only person he was ever sure that he truly loved./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"Rachel Hamilton lived to be 32, and Alexander Hamilton was sure he would not live a day longer than she had. He was meant to be something great, of that he was certain, but it would ultimately be cut short, as there was no way he could ever expect to live longer than her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"Perhaps even more important than his life expectancy was the creed he adopted after she died. He would not fall in love. If he had a child, it would not be until he was in his 30s, leaving no room for the child to remember him at all. He would never let any child of his own go through what he had gone through, and he would not leave his wife with the pain of losing someone she truly loved./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"span lang="EN"He would be great, but he would become great alone. /span/p