Paraphrase this sentence: "Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger."

This excerpt was taken from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and may be paraphrased in the following forms:

He said he wasn't much affected by his mother's death since they had not been close when she was alive.

or

He said his mother's death wasn't much felt by him because she hadn't been very present in his life.

or

He said he didn't feel great pain for the loss of his mother, since they hadn't bonded while she still lived.