What a good thing Edith was for Woodrow! On her death bed Ellen had told me to take care of Woodrow, and I believe she would have been happy to see him happy. The whole ?chance meeting? was really planned by me. You see, my fiancé, Alice Gertrude Gordon or Altrude as I called her, was a dear friend of Edith Galt. Woodrow was so moody after Ellen?s death that I thought a little happy distraction would be in order. Edith Galt, I thought, would be the perfect candidate and so I introduced her to Helen Bones. How well it has worked out! During the war years Edith worked alongside Woodrow and helped him everyday. They would wake at the same time, eat a light snack, play a game of golf (Edith always would win), eat breakfast, and then their day would be full of presidential duties, looking over papers, sending messages, decoding and recoding the messages, etc. Woodrow relied on Edith to give him unbiased advice. Edith also took care of the President, making sure he got enough rest. After the war Edith went with her husband to Europe. Her main goal in going was to keep her husband healthy. After their return home Woodrow got the silly idea that he needed to travel the nation to get support for his League of Nations, Edith begged him not to go. She was so concerned about his health. But he would not be stopped, so off we all went. On the trip you could tell how worried Edith was for her husband. When he had his stroke in Pueblo CO Edith was instantly on top of things. She immediately took charge and ordered that we go straight back to Washington. Edith and I agreed that the best thing for Woodrow would be to keep him isolated. Once back in Washington Edith was Woodrow?s filter, all papers or persons went through her to get to the President. The President was able to handle the most important issues but Edith was calling most of the shots as she thought Woodrow would have. Some people now call her the first woman president, but I don?t think that was what she planned. She wanted to protect her husband and this was the only way she knew how. As Woodrow?s doctor, I would have to say that keeping him from the everyday stress of running the country kept him alive as long as we could.
