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

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WASHINGTON, Wednesday — It is nice to be home again! From the cheerful sound of my husband's voice when he greeted me, the pleasant smile on everybody's face, I enjoyed the happy feeling of welcome, but I didn't have long to dwell upon it. Arriving four hours late in the morning, meant hurrying to catch up most of the day. I started with a press conference at 11:00 o'clock and then went up to lunch with the Senate ladies. Once every year they invite me with the ladies of the Cabinet to their weekly lunch. It is one of those affairs where the table is covered with good things to eat and one eats far more than one should.

The ladies of the Senate spend one morning a week sewing for the Red Cross and the amount which they have accomplished seems phenomenal. The report was read at luncheon yesterday and some of the work was on exhibition. I looked at it with interest, for the garments seemed to me much more attractive than the clothes I have seen made in the past.

Mrs. Morgenthau drove home with me, which gave me a chance to see her. When you have been as far as Miss Thompson and I have been in three weeks, one feels as though one hadn't seen friends or family for an age and it is a joy to catch up again.

At 4:00 o'clock Mrs. Helm and I went up to the Home for Incurables, where a new wing was dedicated with simple ceremonies. Mrs. Helm is a member of the board and takes a great deal of interest in this always appealing charity. In Washington this home has done an extraordinary piece of work, for there are only two institutions where these unfortunates can be cared for. Afterward we stopped for a minute to say a word of greeting to Bishop and Mrs. Freeman, who were celebrating their golden wedding anniversary, and then we looked in at the Wesley Hall Gallery on K Street where Naomi Lorne has an exhibition of paintings which will be open until the 23rd. She has a great feeling for the bare winter trees and some of her scenes of the winter woods are very delightful. So are her paintings of the rocks with a sea which looks just as I know it on the coast of Maine.

I returned to the White House and found Mlle. Curie, Mrs. Lewis Thompson and Dr. Miriam Van Waters all having tea. A brief talk with Mr. John Elliott and Mr. Bart Andress and then the pleasure of a dinner at home with a talk about all the happenings of the world. I think this is one of the things I miss most when I am away, that evening opportunity of discussing with the President and anyone else around the dinner table, the events of the day. It was good too, to telephone our son, Franklin, Jr., and hear that Ethel would be home this weekend. Finally Mlle. Curie, Mrs. von Hesse and I went to Frank Wirth's circus given for the benefit of the Children's Hospital. Today I am going to Philadelphia to speak to the Democratic Women's Club on the subject of: "Youth Today."

E.R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1940, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, April 18, 1940

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

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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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