 As he sat up crying, Alice broke her rule about physical contact with the ill and gave him a kiss.At first, however, Alice did not fall ill. She met her sister Victoria as the latter was passing through Darmstadt on the way to England, and wrote to her mother with "a hint of resumed cheerfulness" on the same day.However, by Saturday, 14 December, the anniversary of her father's death, she became seriously ill with the diphtheria caught from her son.