The Kennedy Men_ 1901-1963 - Laurence Leamer [387]
“He was very content with her [Rose],” said Dr. Betts, the specialist in charge of Joe’s daily care. “He liked having her around. That’s my observation. His children told me that he did not like having her around—she made him nervous—before his stroke, she was always upset about something else and she wanted to change something…. Well, she didn’t make him nervous when I saw him. I mean, he loved having her around.”
On Father’s Day in June 1962, Joe’s children called in the morning as if by doing so they had fulfilled their familial obligations. Then, in the afternoon, they surprised their father by descending en masse on the cottage. The president, Bobby, Teddy, Jean, and Pat stood before their parents and put on a skit about growing up Kennedy. These were jokes for them alone, and Joe and Rose laughed until they were sore. And when the play was over, the players stood and applauded their parents, saluting their father and his life. There were gifts and food and endless reminiscences, and when the evening was over, Joe’s children had the grace not to make dramatic good-byes but slipped out into the night and stood waiting for their siblings to join them.
The sweetness of this evening hung over the bungalow until Ann called from Detroit. When Joe set the phone down, he was full of the fearsome rage that Rose had hoped was gone for good. Rose did not know what had gone wrong and had no idea that Ann was beseeching Joe to let her back inside the Kennedy fold, crying over the phone. Again and again Ann called, day after day, imploring him, begging to be asked back.
Rose was used to being alone, and having to watch over Joe unsettled her established daily routine. When it came time for her to go to Hyannis Port for the summer, as she had for the past three decades, Rose called Dr. Betts to ask his advice. “I could tell Ann to stay in Detroit and I could stay here, or I could go to the Cape and let Ann come back,” Rose said. “Now what should I do?”
The Kennedys readily solicited advice from experts, often searching until they found someone to tell them what they wanted to hear. The doctor had been around the Kennedys long enough, and he was not about to be drawn too far into this family affair. “I don’t know, I don’t think it’s for me to tell you what to do,” he said, “but I can tell you that your husband is most happy when you’re there.”
The doctor told Rose as clearly as he could that if she cared about Joe’s happiness, she should be with her husband, but Rose was not satisfied with that answer. She called back several times, and each time he told her the same thing.
Rose left the institute for her summer at Hyannis Port, and soon afterward Ann returned. “Uncle Joe, the family has put me in charge of you,” she told him as he sat in his wheelchair, “and you’ll have to do as I say from now on.” The old man had what his nurse thought was “a wild look in his eyes.” Then his shoulders slumped. The prison of his marriage had become his only freedom, and even that was gone now.
After his holiday Dr. Betts returned to Horizon House, and he was startled to see that Ann was in charge now and Rose was gone. “I think she [Rose] made her decision, and she couldn’t cope, she could not cope with a bad situation,” Dr. Betts reflected. “And from that moment on Ann Gargan was in charge. Ann did not make him happy. She was devoted to him, but she was much more manipulative. He loved her and hated her. She stirred him up, and I personally think he would have been much happier to just settle down and be content with his wife for all those