These Few Precious Days (44 page)

(28) In 1963, the first family stuck with tradition and attended Easter Mass at Palm Beach’s vine-covered St. Edward’s Church.

(29) “Anyone for ice cream?!” With that, a dozen Kennedy cousins summering at Hyannis Port would come running to jump on Uncle Jack’s golf cart for a wild ride into town.

(30) Just days before going into premature labor with Patrick, Jackie, who hid her heavy smoking habit from the nation, relaxes with a book and a cigarette aboard the
Honey Fitz
.

(31) Drawn closer than they had ever been by Patrick’s death, Jack and Jackie hold hands as they leave the hospital at Cape Cod’s Otis Air Force Base.

(32) JFK explained the loss of their little brother to Caroline and John, then brought home a new cocker spaniel puppy to lift everyone’s spirits.

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(35) JFK at the wheel. With the president as their chauffeur, the first family drew crowds when they decided to take an impromptu weekend tour of the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

(36) On September 15, 1963, Jackie and Jack—still reeling from Patrick’s death—leave Hammersmith Farm in Newport for a cruise aboard the
Honey Fitz
.

(37) In her first official act as first lady since Patrick’s death shattered the Kennedys’ world, Jackie joined her husband in greeting Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia at Washington’s Union Station on October 1, 1963.

(38) By the end of the month, Jack could laugh at the witch (Caroline, holding the requisite black cat) and her skeleton sidekick (John) when they surprised Daddy in the Oval Office.

(39) Just nine days before the fatal shots rang out in Dallas, the family was photographed one last time on the Truman Balcony of the White House, listening to the bagpipes of Scotland’s Black Watch Regiment.