-

s

After the fourth-term election, crowds gathered at Union Station
Plaza in Washington to greet Father, just back from Hyde
Park, and the newly elected Vice-President, Harry S. Truman.

States, I found that my five-year-old
son, Johnny, was very ill. That was
February 28, 1945. The illness turned
out to be a severe staphylococcus in-
fection, and it was June 1 of that
year before the doctors discharged
him. So when Father went to Warm
Springs for a holiday those last days
X"Sf March, I stayed in Washington.

Father knew I was worried about
"’’Niim. He was obviously very tired.
<" Mother felt, as I did, that a three-
f week holiday (if it could truly be a
( holiday without any new catastro-

phic developments)
would bring him
back to Washing-
ton in good shape.
As I wrote in the
first article of this
series, none of us
in the family, nor
Father’s physician,
Admiral McIntyre,
had any indication
that there was any-
thing about Fa-
ther’s physical con-
dition to worry us
in the long run.

Father knew I
was worried about
young Johnny. So,
every evening about

bedtime, Father tel-
ephoned. When he
had finished asking

about Johnny, he
would tell me he was feeling fine,
and then tell me some funny story
or amusing incident that had hap-
pened during his day.

\ The fateful day of April 12 caught
w completely unprepared. I was
spending all my time at the hospital
with Johnny, and this was the first
day Mother had persuaded me to
come home for lunch.

As I left the luncheon table, the
White House usher told me Ad-
miral McIntyre wanted to see me in
his office. He told me Father had

52