[The following is in regards to the failing health of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the last days of his life. In April 1945 he passed away due to complications of, among other things, congestive heart failure.]
In the open space that was both parlor and dining room, Roosevelt was sitting before the fieldstone fireplace in his armless wheelchair, his legs up on a wood-and-rattan footstool. Over his lap was a folding table on which he performed the nightly ritual he called “the children’s hour,” reaching for a cocktail shaker and chunks of ice.
”I was terribly shocked when I saw him,” Morgenthau recorded in his diary. “He had aged terrifically and looked very haggard.”
Roosevelt’s hands shook so violently that he nearly knocked over the glasses. Morgenthau helped his host by holding each glass as he poured. He noticed a large bowl of black Russian caviar, presented by Stalin at Yalta: “If I remember correctly, Mr. President, you like it plain.”
Eschewing the eggs and onion, Morgenthau spread a dollop of caviar on white toast and handed it to the President. He noticed that Roosevelt “seemed to feel a little bit better” after two drinks, but that his memory was bad “and he was constantly confusing names.” Morgenthau had never seen him have such trouble moving from wheelchair to armchair for dinner: “I was in agony watching him.”
Source:
Beschloss, Michael R. “No Earthly Powers Can Keep Him Here.” The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman, and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2007. 209. Print.
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