The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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WASHINGTON, Sunday—First of all, today, I want to thank literally thousands of people who have been thoughtful and kind enough to send Christmas cards to the President and to me. It has been a very heart-warming thing to have such an outpouring from people all over the country, and it is particularly nice to know how many people hope that the New Year will bring greater happiness and peace to the world. With so many people working toward the same end, and giving the best they have to the war effort, I think we can hope that peace will be hastened.

One of my nicest Christmas presents came in the form of an abridged version of the Beveridge report, but it is a fuller one than I have yet seen. I am looking forward to reading it with great care, knowing quite well that a pattern which might fit Great Britain may not, of necessity, fit the United States. But I hope to find in it some ideas which may be of value to us all.

Yesterday morning, I visited the new Naval Medical Center, just outside of Washington. It is a striking building with a very high tower, but as yet the planting around it does not seem to be sufficiently grown to make the building look as though it has belonged in its surroundings for any length of time. That I am sure will come and, on the whole, it seems to me both inside and out, extremely well fitted for the purpose for which it is intended. The rooms are bright and cheerful, which I think is one of the first requisites in a good hospital.

In the afternoon, Major Hooker and I went to the Walter Reed Hospital to call on an officer friend who has been there for several weeks and who apparently will be there for sometime longer.

We returned to the White House just in time to gather up the rest of the family and go out to Fairfax, Va., for Belle Roosevelt's wedding to Mr. John G. Palfrey, Junior. When you see young people today trusting to the future enough to start a new life together, it not only fills you with admiration for their courage, but you cannot escape a certain emotional tension which is apparent in the general feeling which runs through the guests at almost any wedding today.

Bishop Atwood joined us at a very small family dinner and I spent the evening trying to make a beginning on my Christmas letters of thanks to the family. We were particularly happy to get one letter from one of our sons in Africa, written two weeks ago, but which arrived yesterday. Such things are precious these days and it will go the rounds of the entire family.

E.R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1942, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Persons
  • Atwood, Julius Walter, 1857-1945 [ index ]
         American clergyman
         [ Wikidata | SNAC ]
  • Palfrey, John Gorham, 1919-1979 [ index ]
         American lawyer and college administrator; Dean of Columbia College from 1958 to 1962
  • Pallfey, Belle Wyatt Roosevelt, 1919-1985 [ index ]
         Daughter of TR's son Kermit Roosevelt and Belle Wyatt Willard Roosevelt
Geographic
  • Washington (D.C., United States) [ index ]
Other Terms and Topics


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, December 28, 1942

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | WorldCat | DPLA | Wikidata | SNAC ]

Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
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  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
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  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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