Dwight Eisenhower never recovered from the death of his three-year-old son, Doud Dwight "Icky" Eisenhower, on January 2, 1921.
After marrying the love of his life, Mamie Doud, just five months after proposing to her on Valentine's Day 1916, the future U.S. president and his wife eagerly awaited the birth of their first child. On September 24, 1917, Mamie gave birth to Doud in Texas -- shortly after the entrance of the United States into World War I.
Moving frequently because of Eisenhower's military deployment during this time, the family relocated to Fort Meade in Maryland. There, Mamie hired a 16-year-old girl as a servant in the family home.
Shortly before Christmas in 1920, Icky contracted scarlet fever. He died roughly two weeks later -- apparently catching the disease from the servant girl. Because neither Dwight nor Mamie had checked the girl's background, neither one knew she was recovering from the disease at the time she was hired.
Reflecting on the loss of his child later, Eisenhower said, "There's no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were."
Do you think a parent ever really recovers from the loss of a child, regardless of how much time passes? Please post your opinions in the comments section below.
Photo © Brian John Haas/Creative Commons
In a parent’s mind, the natural course of things is that you die before your precious child. The pain is so deep that there are moments you can’t even breathe or the guilt that you are still enjoying the things in life that he can no longer share overwhelms you. But…you continue to breathe in and breathe out and you find a place where you can keep your sadness and manage the pain.
No recovery, just managing.