The Special Olympics are a beautiful flower born of Eunice’s drama

There was that girl who was a bit exuberant, with mood swings and some learning difficulties. Her name was Rosemary and she was born less than a year after her brother John. One who, of little importance, became president of the United States of America. Because Rosemary, the third child of the nine children of Joseph and Rose, as John had Kennedy’s surname. And this is very important. The nurse waited too long for the doctor to give birth and this caused problems for her future life. No major problems, maybe just a mild intellectual disability. Not for her father, who chose to have her lobotomized. Back then some doctors did it, as if it were a cure for those with his condition. Rosemary was 23 years old and her intellectual abilities became those of a child of two. She was sent to St. Coletta’s School for Exceptional Children in Jefferson, Wisconsin, forever separated from her family. Joseph never sees her again, Rose about her after 20 years. Only Eunice, married to Shriver, one of her sisters, had relations with her in the last years of her life. She died in 2005 at the age of 86.