"One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes." - Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt was born in Manhattan in 1884 into a family of much prestige and wealth. But while such an environment provided comfort, Eleanor's early years were quite challenging. She had a strained relationship with her mother, who, though caring, was known to favor Eleanor's younger brothers. Eleanor's mother was a society beauty who would comment on her daughter's perceived plainness and demeanor, nicknaming her "granny," which deeply affected the young girl's self-esteem. Compounding her difficulties, Eleanor's father grappled with alcoholism, resulting in his frequent absences. Though Eleanor was particularly close with him, writing in her autobiography,
"My father and mother, my little brother and I went to Italy for the winter of 1890 as the first step in the fight for his health and power of self-control. I remember my father acting as a gondolier, taking me out on the Venice canals, singing with the other boatmen, to my intense joy. I loved his voice, and above all, I loved the way he treated me. He called me 'Little Nell' after the Little Nell in Dickens' Old Curiosity Shop, and I never doubted that I stood first in his heart."
Her father also instilled empathy for others in Eleanor, values she would carry throughout life. She wrote,
"Very early I became conscious of the fact that there were people around me who suffered in one way or another. I was five or six when my father took me to help serve Thanksgiving dinner in one of the newsboys' clubhouses which my grandfather, Theodore Roosevelt, had started…My father explained that many of these ragged little boys had no homes and lived in little wooden shanties in empty lots, or slept in vestibules of houses or public buildings or any place where they could be moderately warm."
But, challenges during her upbringing turned into tragedies. When Eleanor was just eight years old, her mother and a younger brother died from diphtheria. After her mother's death, Eleanor went to live with her grandmother, as her father was often away. Less than two years later, her father also passed away after suffering a seizure shortly after a fall. His memory would stay with Eleanor for many years, as she would re-read his letters and continue to follow his lessons and wishes. But with his passing, Eleanor was just shy of her tenth birthday and now an orphan.