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

      

HYDE PARK, Friday—Before I do anything else this morning, I want to thank the many people who sent me telegrams and letters telling me how much they wished that my husband might have been here on V-E Day to see the end of the European war. I rejoice with them that that part of our task is successfully over.

It is kind and warming to my heart that people thought of my husband on that day. I am also glad that they coupled the thought of my husband with the thought of his successor, pledging the President their loyalty and work in helping to accomplish the objectives of our country. We all want a victorious end to the war in the Pacific and the establishment of a framework within which the generations of the future may keep on building a peaceful world.

* * *

I want also to thank the great number of people who have sent me letters of sympathy and condolence. Even if it were physically possible to answer all these kind messages, I could not obtain the paper at this time to use for letters or cards of acknowledgment. But that does not mean I have not appreciated the love shown for my husband and the sympathy and kindly feeling expressed to my family and myself.

All of these letters are going into the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, and will eventually be part of the historians' material for use as the picture of this period is painted. I think it a very important picture to paint, for one of the things that impresses me is the fact that it is possible, through our modern system of communications, for a leader to be close to many people whom he may never meet face to face. Many people tell me that my husband's voice in their homes actually made them feel that they were part of his family. This seems to me an important thing to preserve under a democratic form of government, and I hope it will continue to be a tie between every leader of our country and the people of our nation.

* * *

We are back at Hyde Park now, and for some time to come I shall be choosing and packing things in the big house, trying to have it ready as soon as possible for the government to open to the public. In the evenings I shall be sorting and reading the great quantity of mail which we have not as yet been able to go through. But the daily round of work will have its interruptions. People will be coming to see us, and the outer world does press into one's personal affairs with dramatic impact.

E. R.

(COPYRIGHT 1945 BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

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  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]
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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, May 12, 1945

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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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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