S.and he talked a lot about it at the end of the First World War and had an almost cute name: Spanish, they called her. It sounded more like the title of a romantic song than a threat. Instead so was called the deadly flu that raged from 1918 to 1920, causing more victims of the war. The woman whose story we are telling you was born in the midst of that tragedy, on September 13, 1918. She was giving birth at home at the time, and the his mom, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, was no exception. He had already had two children and everything had gone well. Instead that time his trusted doctor was held at the bedside of another patient that he had contracted the Spanish and the birth took too long.
The entire Kennedy family in a photo from the 1930s. Seated, from left: Patricia, Robert, mother Rose Fitzgerald, John Fitzgerald, father Joseph with little Edward on his lap. Standing: Joseph Jr., Kathleen, Rosemary, Eunice (in the polka dot dress) and Jean. Getty Images (Photo by Bachrach / Getty Images)
Rosemary Kennedy, the only “different” in the family
The child was welcomed with joy, after two boys, and baptized Rosemary. But it soon became clear that there was something wrong with her and that, despite her good looks and splendid smile, she would never be up to par with her other brothers and sisters, nine in all, six of whom came to life. world after her.
Yes, the Kennedy family was one of those of the past, numerous and solid, at least in appearance. Papa Joe made a career as an entrepreneur, accumulated money and reputation, entered politics, even became an ambassador to England. Mama Rose baked children, took care of everything, managed the house and social relations beautifully, she pretended not to see a husband’s constant betrayals who, especially since he had entered the film industry, had been practicing Oscar Wilde’s aphorism: “I can resist anything but temptation.” From Gloria Swanson to Marlene Dietrich and her personal secretary, they all passed by in her bed, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
And this did not affect the harmony of a Catholic family, compact in showing the best on the outside and united on the inside by a common goal: to build the future of the children. Of all, male and female, through excellent schools, excellent attendances, excellent marriages. The Kennedys must excel, in studies and in sports. They have to honor themselves, prepare for a bright future. Who will be president of the United States, who will be a senator, who will be the wife of an ambassador … Each has a sealed destiny. All but one. Rosemary no, because she is different.
The hidden disability
But in what sense? These are times when intellectual disability is little known, talked about reluctantly, hiding, minimizing or hoping for a miracle. These are times when if you don’t jog in step with others, you can’t afford to slow them down, anything but. The most beautiful of the sisters, the sweet Rosemary (the one who is tall and blonde like John and Bob, loves the simple things, loves to get nail polish and wear a cute dress, has a sweet tooth and puts on a few extra pounds, she practices all sports with bungling enthusiasm but certainly won’t become an agonist, she writes, but as a 12-year-old girl, she reads, but only the stories of Winnie the Pooh, and would do anything to please her mom and especially her beloved dad) with each passing year it falls further behind and becomes a heavier burden. She is now a woman, from all points of view. And certain behaviors are noticeable. She is too affectionate, confident, naive, exuberant. Difficult to control.
Eunice and Rosemary: the two sisters were very close. (Getty Images)
An intervention to please dad
The fateful meeting is between Papa Joe, Patriarch Kennedy, and a doctor, Dr. Watts, who practiced a very innovative procedure, the lobotomy, which consisted of severing the connections of the prefrontal cortex of the brain. There were many women who were brought to his operating room by fathers, husbands, brothers, sometimes children, disturbed by uninhibited behavior of their relatives or from their mood swings, or from the lack of complacency. It didn’t take long, at the time, even to end up in an asylum: it is difficult to prove that the pater familias was wrong and once the gates of hell were open to get out of it, for a woman, it proved to be almost impossible.
it proved almost impossible.
So Rosemary, a smiling 23-year-old, adjusts her hat, takes her dad’s hand and one fine day November 1941 enters the office of Dr. Watts, confident in the miracle and above all anxious to please her parents. It will be a small intervention, a tagliettino, et voilà: so they tell him. Except that miracles do not exist and that which will come out of the operating room will be another Rosemary, a blurred simulacrum of the smiling and lively girl who had been, destined to be forgotten and hidden by the whole family.
Kennedy canceled
No tears for Rosemary by Simona New Year and Marina Marazza. Rizzoli Libri
We told the story of the canceled Kennedy in a book called No tears for Rosemary. The idea came from Simona New Year, radio author who had met Rosemary writing an episode about her. “I realized that I had found an exemplary story from so many points of view: the story of a Kennedy, a person with a very famous surname but of which, unlike the rest of the family, very few had heard of. A cross-section of the period, because it was that historical context that made everything possible. It has to do with the condition of women, with the social perception of psychological distress, with family dynamics. An emotional bomb ». It is also a difficult story to tell. Almost nothing has been said about it even in the United States so far. Recently, certain painful skeletons have been able to emerge from the closets of adults. A story that has beautiful moments, when Rosemary enjoys the glamorous context in which her family lives, the sessions at Elizabeth Arden, the debutante’s ball at the court of England, the training grand tours for the offspring of good families. He smiles from the photographs, young, with a sparkling gaze and his whole life ahead. Of course this girl won’t be able to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry or write War and Peace, but who cares? He might have a happy little life of his own. Instead it will not be so, someone will extinguish her smile and condemn her to oblivion.
The Games born in honor of Rosemary Kennedy
Kathleen, Mrs Kennedy and Rosemary in 1938 (Photo by Keystone-France / Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)
Since then, chroniclers who love dark stories say, strange things begin to happen: the mourning of the Kennedy curse is ringed. A curse that does not exist, of course, but it is significant that it was thought to link it to the tragedy of Rosemary, like an ancient grim legend. QFortunately, this has a bright implication: in 1968 Rosemary’s sister Eunice is inspired by her to found the Special Olympics, the largest international organization of athletic training and competitions for people with intellectual disabilities.. Today the Special Olympics they are recognized by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and their programs are adopted in nearly 180 countries. Thanks to Rosemary something has changed, and her story deserves to be known not only to do her some posthumous justice, but above all, as her sister Eunice said, “to make the world a better place.”
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