Edith's Broken Hip
On Friday night November 12, 1935 it was freezing cold. It was the start of one of New York’s record setting winters. That night Edith rose from her bed to close a window and stumbled in the dark falling heavily on her right hip. She was barely able to crawl back into bed.
In the morning she was taken to the North Country Community Hospital in Glen Cove where she was diagnosed with a severe fracture. The hip was brittle from age and slow to mend. Edith remained in the hospital for the next 5 months while the bones slowly began to knit. In April 1936 doctors put Edith in a heavy brace and with the aid of a walker and a nurse she could walk the length of the corridor and back.
She became depressed and stopped making entries in her diary until January 1937 when she went to St. Andrew’s Florida to spend the winter. There she would slowly and stiffly walk the beach, sit looking out over the sunset and slowly get back to feeling herself.
She was accompanied by her favorite Sagamore Hill gang. Her cook Bridget Turbidy and her personal maids Mary Sweeney was with Edith for 35 years and Clara Lee. Clara had married Charley Lee the black coachman to the Roosevelts while at the White House. He'd go on to become Edith's personal chauffer. The two lived in Gray Cottage on the grounds of Sagamore Hill along with James and Annie Amos. After Charley's death in June 1934 Edith moved Clara into the main house. All three were included in Edith’s will. Her estate was worth $414,518. Mary Sweeny received $1,500 and Bridget and Clara each received $1.000.