Deborah Read Franklin was Benjamin Franklin’s partner in family and business. After her first husband deserted her, she formed a common-law marriage with Franklin in 1730. During Benjamin’s long stays abroad, she managed household affairs and correspondence in Philadelphia. In 1768, Read suffered the first of a series of strokes that severely impaired her speech and memory. In November 1769, aged 61, Read wrote Franklin saying that her stroke, declining health and depressed mental state were a result of her "dissatisfied distress" due to his prolonged absence. Read's final surviving letter to Franklin is dated October 29, 1773, when she was 65 years old. The available biographical record identifies Deborah Read with work or public activity as a merchant. Additional claims about employment, public service, or accomplishments have been omitted where the consulted source did not support them. Deborah Read died on Dec 19, 1774, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The available biographical account does not describe a continuous final medical course. It gives no dependable sequence of treatment and last symptoms from which to reconstruct a more detailed bedside narrative.