Adelaide was devastated. Her mother, Jane Hamilton Hunter, who had managed the farm where Adelaide grew up after the death of Addie's father David in 1857, had died only one year before on August 26, 1888—just after John Harold's birth on June 23, 1888. It was after her son's death that Adelaide's public life began. She wanted to ensure that women had the knowledge to prevent deaths like those of her child and she devoted herself to the betterment of education for new mothers.