At age ninety-three, Rose Kennedy was being interviewed by a magazine reporter. By this time, four of her nine children had died violently. Another daughter, Rosemary, severely retarded all her life, would soon be gone. Mrs. Kennedy had outlived her husband long enough to have seen his rather profligate and unscrupulous life told and retold in the press. She was an old lady, hit by tragedies again and again. The reporter asked about all this and Rose Kennedy answered, slowly: "I have always believed that God never gives a cross to bear larger than we can carry. And I have always believed that, no matter what, God wants us to be happy. He doesn’t want us to be sad. Birds sing after a storm," she said, "Why shouldn’t we?" *
Children:
Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. - pilot killed in war
John F. Kennedy - became president, assassinated
Rosemary Kennedy - not born mentally challenged but a brain operation she was left mentally incapacitated because doctors used it to try and control her mood swings. They destroyed her mind.
Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington
Eunice Kennedy Shriver - husband Ambassador to France, mother to First Lady of California Maria Shriver
Patricia Kennedy Lawford - married actor Peter Lawford
Robert F. Kennedy - Attorney General, assassinated
Jean Kennedy Smith - American diplomat, former United States Ambassador to Ireland, founder of Very Special Arts - the international organization on art and disabilities
Edward M. Kennedy - Senator of Massachusetts who spent career fighting for economically disadvantaged, civil rights and the promotion of the middle class
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