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

      

HYDE PARK, Thursday—At eight o'clock yesterday morning the airline people called to say that the weather in Washington was such that no planes could land. I gasped because it meant I had to take the eight-thirty train for Washington and that I could not eat the breakfast which was on my table waiting for me. I dashed for the train, made it. Fortunately, I had put the things I wanted to read into my knitting bag the night before, so I was well provided with material for the trip!

I arrived in Washington in time to spend ten minutes with Mr. D. V. Sandifer at the State Department and to arrange for various reports which I could read before the Human Rights Commission meets. Then I went to Blair House and had the great pleasure of lunching with the President and Mrs. Truman and seeing again his Royal Highness, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. It was good to have news of the queen and the children. We saw so much of them during the war that I always have a special feeling for this whole family. Whether I will get another glimpse of the prince before he goes back, I do not know. Mr. Von Tets who was with him, is also an old acquaintance. At present he is the Netherlands' ambassador in Prague and had been greeted that morning with the news that some of the members of his staff had been expelled from Czechoslovakia. He and his wife had hoped to spend a little time on a holiday in Duchess County with her family, but he did not know whether he now had to return immediately to his post. They plan to leave Washington for Canada on Friday. I hope they will have time to visit me in Hyde Park.

One cannot help liking the fact that this prince flies his own plane and on the whole is the most independent and democratic of individuals. With his charming and warm manner, I think he must win friends for his country wherever he goes.

After lunch I went with my daughter-in-law, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., to visit Franklin, Jr., in his Congressional office. It was my first visit there. Then, without him because he was too busy in the House, Sue and I went to the Swedish Embassy where I was given the Prince Carl medal. This is a medal awarded by the King of Sweden once a year to an individual who has shown a humanitarian spirit. Prince Bernadotte was given this medal posthumously last year. I felt very humble at being chosen, for certainly where I am concerned it is a question of having been given great opportunity and I, personally, deserve no credit for what I have been able to do. I hope that by giving the medal to an American woman, it will stand as a symbol of the recognition of the humanitarian spirit which inspires the women of our country as a whole.

There were no planes flying back; so I had to take a train at five o'clock and then drive up to Hyde Park. That made the day a long one, and it was wonderful to get home!

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1950, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

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


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, March 10, 1950

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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MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

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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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