The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
APRIL 22, 1936
[This column has emendations. View original version]
WASHINGTON—I have just returned from the airport. I hated to see my children go off to New York by air in a young gale with a small dust storm sweeping over us, but they flew down for Mr. Howe's funeral services, and felt they had to get back as soon as possible, so I thought at least I would see them safely off the ground. The wind is a tail wind and it will probably be less disagreeable than it was coming down, but I shall be glad to hear that they have arrived safely.
I like flying on pleasant days even though I know there is no particular danger when the visibility is good as it is now.
I like the words of the Episcopal funeral service, they are both dignified and restrained. It was rather nice to think that the music which Mr. Howe always liked was being sung by the choir with which he had sung in the early days in Washington when he attended St. Thomas' Church and that Dr. Smith who officiated today was the Rector then.
All day certain lines which were favorites of Colonel Howe's have been running through my head:
"So be my passing!My task accomplished and the long day done,
My wages taken, and in my heart
Some late lark singing,
Let me be gathered to the quiet west,
The sundown splendid and serene,
Death."
This perhaps epitomizes better than anything else what most of us, who knew Colonel Howe, were thinking as we sat in the East Room this afternoon at his funeral services. Death should be calm and serene when work is done and well done, there is nothing to regret either for those who go or for those who stay behind. Only an inheritance or good accomplishment to be lived up to by those who carry a loving memory in their hearts.
E.R.
About this document
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, April 22, 1936
Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007
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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TMsd, 21 April 1936, AERP, FDRL