If I could chat with anyone in history...

            It astonishes me how my life goals are so simple compared to the endless works and accomplishments of certain people in history. When I read their bibliography, it seems like I am reading the works of a superhuman. One lady in history that I would love to have a conversation with would be Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. 

   Her life and the situations she was placed in were far from fairytale, yet she still managed to change lives and the future for the United States. Most people know her as the first lady to Franklin D. Roosevelt, but she was way more than just a first lady.

       I would ask her how she remained spirited and hardworking throughout all the adversity. I sometimes lose motivation during difficult times in my life, my struggles being very minor compared to her numerous hardships. Early childhood was not a happy time for Eleanor. 

    She never felt accepted by her mother, due to not being as beautiful as all the other women in their family. Her mother often referred to her as “Granny” for looking so plain and old fashioned. Elliot, her father, she really loved. "As soon as I could talk," she recalled, "I went into his dressing room every morning and chattered to him … I even danced with him." 

    His love for Eleanor soon betrayed her. Elliot would finally return home to visit with her but then run off in another drunken spree, one night leaving Eleanor with the doorman at his club. Her mother died of a sudden illness when she was eight and her father drank himself to his death leaving Eleanor as an orphan at only ten years old. 

       Later in Eleanor’s life, motherhood was not even joyful.  She grew up to marry Franklin Roosevelt, who had the same warm and spontaneous spark about him that she saw in her father. They had six children together, but the death of her third child at only six months old, along with Franklin’s mother taking over the household intensified her life. 

    Eleanor’s mother-in-law despised her. She made her feel as if she was an inadequate wife and mother, telling Eleanor’s children “your mother only bore you”. To continue her trials, later when Franklin became president he was caught in an affair with her social secretary, Lucy Mercer. This emotionally devastated Eleanor.

      She offered him a divorce although he declined. From then on, they were just political partners. The last major hardship was when the family discovered Franklin had polio and was paralyzed. 

     Although Eleanor’s life was filled with trials, it only developed her leadership and work ethic even more. I believe she would answer to say that when things get tough, you work harder and become stronger. Studying her life shows how the difficult times hard-pressed her into the outstanding women she was. After she was left as an orphan, she went to Allenswood, an all-girl school, where she found her role models and had the best years of her life learning to become independent and liberally minded. 

      During motherhood when was not enjoying herself at home, she decided to go to work. Touring the country along with working on many different campaigns and relief projects, Eleanor surpassed herself as a political role model. She was also the head of national women’s campaign for the Democratic party. She had a discipline to her like no other women of her time. Her political sophistication grew because she stood up for her beliefs and set a model for the women of years to come. 

        She pushed for minority rights, ethics for laboring workers, and women’s rights. At the time of Franklin’s illness, she became “his legs and ears” going out to all the poverty-stricken tent houses to help the U.S. in time of The Great Depression. She loved caring for others and was happiest when she was busy. The news reporters hoped Eleanor would rest one day just so they would have time to catch up. It would be an honor and greatly inspiring just to communicate with such a strong spirited woman.

Eleanors full biography episode click here!!

 

Chafe, William H. "ROOSEVELT, Anna Eleanor." Notable American Women, the Modern Period: A Biographical Dictionary (Vol.4), Sept. 1980, p. 595. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=b6h&AN=34645784&site=brc-live.