On this date in 1917, Nicholas II was being held in his Imperial train and being forced to abdicate. At his preferred cherished home, the family quarters of the Alexander Palace, the family was in a crisis- 4 of the 5 children had acute measles. Only Marie seemed free of the then often fatal disease. Dr. Botkin and Alexandra and Marie made endless rounds, from sick bed to sick bed.
From the novel, The Passion of Marie Romanov:
"On the stairwell, I stepped with care, one hand on the wall, one foot seeking the next step, in order not to fall. Even so, I mentally tumbled headfirst. I had always run down these same steps with joy. Our “secret stairs,” we called them—the narrow pitched steps that connected our rooms in the Children’s Wing to the first-floor family quarters, to Mama and Papa’s cozy warren of their dressing rooms and more intimate salons. How often I almost tripped in my eagerness to reach my favorite destinations— Papa’s saltwater swimming pool, his private hideaway and Mama’s mauve boudoir. But on this night, blind as I descended the stairs, I felt the shiver of prophecy.Nothing will ever be the same"
