By Catherine Ulrich Brakefield
In my August 16th blog, entitled “Eleanor and Franklin”, I left off with Eleanor’s decision whether to divorce Franklin and possibly ruin his career, or stay with him, knowing he loved Mary Mercer.
Eleanor and Franklin knew of the
social stigma attached to divorce in the early 1900s. Franklin had to choose.
He could either dissolve his affair with Mary, keep his and Eleanor’s marriage intact
and thereby save the Roosevelt name and spare his career. Or he could divorce
Eleanor and marry the new love of his life, Mary.
Eleanor’s heart was wounded. She
couldn’t believe her husband, whom she adored and graced with six children,
could do such a thing.
Franklin had fallen into the trap an
attractive woman can weave around a man whose wife is busy with children and
running a household.
Franklin and Eleanor admitted their
shortcomings, and both knew what divorce would do for Franklin’s political
career and the Roosevelt name. Eleanor was most concerned about her children.
She knew well what it was like growing up without a father. So, they mutually agreed
not to divorce.
Lucy Page Mercer went off and married Winthrop
Rutherfurd, a wealthy widower with six children of his own. Because of Lucy, Eleanor lost her trust in Franklin. This
haunted her. But she had her children to consider.
She once wrote, “Do what you feel in your heart to be right—for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
Eleanor might have recalled
Grandmother Hall, how she sacrificed her life for her husband and, when he
died, her sons (see my May 15th blog entitled ‘Young Eleanor’).
Grandmother had lost her identity. Was that what Eleanor was guilty of doing?
The year now was 1918; America had entered
the war, and Eleanor threw herself back into volunteer work and her passion for
child labor, tenement conditions, education reform, and civil rights. The war
concluded, but Eleanor’s volunteer work did not.
Then it happened. The year was now
1921: on a sunny August day, Franklin was thirty-five years old, and the
unexplainable happened. Franklin contracted polio.
Though the exact source is unknown, Franklin may have been exposed to the polio virus by visiting a Boy Scout camp in New York, by drinking contaminated water or eating spoiled food shortly before his vacation to Canada. It so happened the family was vacationing at their cottage at Campobello Island, Canada.
It was during this vacation at the family’s cottage, sailing on his yacht, when Franklin fell overboard and plunged suddenly into the icy waters of the Bay of Fundy, that he complained afterward of lower back pain and went for a swim in hopes to ease the soreness. But as the day progressed, he could not feel his legs, and he became weaker and weaker, so that by the third day, his legs could not hold his weight. His skin became extremely sensitive. Just a wisp of a breeze sweeping his body caused him pain.
Eleanor was beside herself with worry. She could not bear seeing her husband suffer like this. She contacted a massive number of doctors. Each had their own idea. Finally, it was on August 25, 1921, physician Dr. Robert Lovett diagnosed Franklin as having infantile paralysis (polio).
Eleanor and Franklin could not believe this diagnosis. It was uncommon for a middle-aged person to contract polio. Most acquire it during infancy and become immune by age four.
“In order for a person to combat poliomyelitis,” Lovett explained, “they must be in good emotional and physical health and have a healthy immune system.”
Franklin recalled being frequently ill as a young boy, and for the past few years he’d been leading a stressful life in politics that could have weakened his immunity.
Franklin’s mother wanted him to forget policies and focus on less stress and more rest. Eleanor urged her husband not to give up trying to walk or quit politics. After all, what would their children think if their father gave into this disease?
Eleanor was keenly aware of what depression and hopelessness could do to a man. First her father and the cousins with whom she was raised, who succumbed depression and then to alcohol addiction were key examples of this. She encouraged Franklin, focusing on his attributes, ignoring his disabilities. She exclaimed she would use her own growing political network to bolster his career.
Franklin understood and pressed on. He realized that in swimming, his legs could hold his weight. He started there, worked hard, and grew stronger. He was fitted with braces and when the time came, Eleanor urged him to run for governor of New York. Again, Franklin’s mother and siblings urged him not to, saying that it would mean certain failure. After all, he was bound to a wheelchair.
Eleanor told him she would be his ears and legs, not to quit. She’d be his co-pilot, and he would never be happy or content without knowing if he could live up to his full potential. Franklin’s political advisor, Louis Howe, urged him to do so as well.
His mother was opposed to this. Masking his disability at home was
altogether one thing versus the challenges of speaking engagements and public gatherings. How would he navigate to the podium? Greeting listeners? It would be so much easier to stay home and admit God wanted it that way. He could always write.
Eleanor had unfailing confidence in her husband’s ability to serve his fellow Americans while attaining his dreams. She refused to think God’s will for her husband was to live as a hermit within the confines of the walls of his paralysis. Maybe the evil one, but never God’s will for her husband not to fulfill his destiny.
Franklin, encouraged by his wife’s confidence in him, devised his own “walking” method. He used a cane and his son’s arm for balance, maneuvering his hips and swinging his legs forward in a swaying motion to make it appear he was walking. Stairs were the worst challenge. He supported his weight with his arms, holding himself up as if he were on parallel bars; he’d swing his way down toward the next step.
Eleanor would one day display her feelings about Franklin’s accomplishment by writing in My Day, “Courage is more exhilarating than fear, and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.”
In 1928, Franklin D. Roosevelt became governor of New York. Eleanor was ecstatic that her husband won yet, apprehensive of what her role would be. After all, she’d promised to be her husband’s ears and legs. She would attend the functions that her husband could not, be his voice, and give Americans confidence and assurance for their future; was she up to this rigorous challenge?
As I write in my novel, Destiny of Heart, America’s future looked bright after World War I. The 920s roared in with gin and booze, even though Prohibition forbade alcoholic beverages. America’s greed to turn a profit conquered that problem with bootleggers and speakeasies.
The stock market was reaching all-time highs, as Europe lay in darkness with debt and Germany experienced record unemployment and want. Americans danced gaily on, because the stock market was the place to get rich seemingly overnight. But the question often arose: would Europe’s problems reach America’s shores? Eleanor might have wondered what would be the outcome of it all? Praise God, her Franklin was governor, he’d know what to do.
DESTINY OF HEART: Confusion and uncertainty hover around Ruby McConnell Meir's skirts like the dust storms and droughts, weakening her faith. Will her husband live—or die?
The
Roaring Twenties dive into the Great Depression. The McConnells battle for
survival. Collina faces insurmountable odds to rescue Shushan. Rough Rider
Franklin Long loses what money couldn’t buy. Is it too late to make right his
failings?
Catherine is the award-winning author of Wilted Dandelions, Swept into Destiny, Destiny’s Whirlwind, Destiny of Heart, Waltz with Destiny, and Love's Final Sunrise. She has written two pictorial history books, The Lapeer Area and Eastern Lapeer, and short stories for Guideposts Books, CrossRiver Media Group, Revell Books, and Bethany House Publishers. Catherine and her husband of fifty-three years live on a ranch in Michigan and have two adult children, five grandchildren, four Arabian horses, two dogs, two cats, one bunny, and six chickens. See CatherineUlrichBrakefield.com for more information.
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