Finishing stuff: a presidential mission

A son died from getting a blister on his toe while playing tennis.
One was caught skinny dipping before going to work.
One would throw a napkin over his wife's face when she would have a seizure during a dinner party.
His wife ran his business after he was permanently disabled by a stroke.
He slept in a pink bedroom.
A son was hit and killed by a train.
His kids brought a pony into the house.

What am I talking about?  I'm talking about the President of the United States.

A few days ago I wrote a post about my quest to "finish stuff."  Well, a number of years ago I began the arduous task of reading a biography about each one of our 44 U.S. Presidents (actually there weren't that many when I started this endeavor).  I don't know how long ago it's been, but it all started because I read "John Adams" by David McCollough which was published in 2002. I think it was a pretty recent book when I read it, so I'll say I started in 2003.  David McCollough is a fabulous writer-- apparently quite inspiring actually!  Not all of the other biographies I've read have been quite that good.

After John Adams (our second President), I went back and read one about George Washington then worked my way forward through presidential biographies which I checked out of our local library.  Oddly enough, they don't have a biography for every president.  Some were missing, so I just read short pieces about those presidents from books that had write-ups on all the presidents.

The trivia I shared at the beginning of the blog is all true.  Calvin Coolidge's 16-year-old son didn't wear socks when playing on the White House tennis courts, developed a blister which got infected and he died because antibiotics were not available then.  The Coolidge's were never the same after that.

Apparently several presidents were known to skinny dip in the Potomac.  There were some embarrassing situations that came about as a result.  John Quincy Adams was the first.

William McKinley's wife, Ida, had epilepsy.  If she had a seizure during state dinners, the president would just drop a napkin over her face and when the seizure subsided, he would remove the napkin and just keep going as though nothing happened.

Woodrow Wilson had a severe stroke while in office, and his wife essentially ran the country while concealing the fact that he was completely incapacitated.  The whole story of Woodrow and his women is fascinating.  And yes, I do read about the history and politics too.  But the human interest stories are very engaging!

Mamie Eisenhower's favorite color was pink, so Ike got to sleep in a pink bedroom, not only at the White House but also at their home in Gettysburg.

Dwight and Mamie's bedroom in Gettysburg

In 1853, Franklin Pierce's last surviving child, 11-year-old Benny, was crushed by a train which rolled down an embankment-- after Pierce was elected but before his inauguration.  Mrs. Pierce became a recluse and President Pierce struggled with the presidency.

The Teddy Roosevelt family had quite a menagerie of children and pets.  The pony, Algonquin was allowed free reign of the children's bedroom and was often brought upstairs on an elevator.

Well, I digress.  You see why I like reading biographies!  Truth is stranger than fiction.  I have digressed quite frequently when reading presidential biographies because sometimes I feel the need to read a biography of the first lady too:  the Adams wives, Dolley Madison, Mary Lincoln, Julia Grant... to name a few.  Fascinating!

I had gotten the whole way from George Washington up to John F. Kennedy.  I never thought I'd bog down in his biography, but I did.  A couple of years ago.  I kept renewing the book at the library and just couldn't finish it.  But now that I'm "finishing stuff," I decided to get back to it.  I chose a JFK biography by a different author and just started over.  There's nothing boring about JFKs life, so I must have gotten stuck on the Cuban Missile Crisis or something before.  But I am going to finish this one.  Then it's on to LBJ!

And by the way, speaking of finishing stuff, isn't it great that God always finishes stuff?  Including the work He's doing on me!

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6