WASHINGTON Nov. 13 — To a grieving nation, Jacqueline Kennedy was stoic following her husband's assassination. But over games of tennis with a priest who counseled her, she apparently revealed her feelings, including thoughts of suicide.
She wondered if God would separate her from her husband if she killed herself. She agonized over the existence of eternal life, and suggested that her young children might be better off if they were raised by the slain president's brother Robert and his wife Ethel.
"I'm no good to them," she told the Rev. Richard McSorley, as they traded tennis strokes at Robert Kennedy's Hickory Hill estate. "I'm so bleeding inside."
Now I wonder how that worked:
"And the guilt, Father. If only I "
thwack "UHNN!"
thwock "ANNGH!"
'hadn't told the driver to "
"ONUGH!" thwack
"hang a left at Elm "
thwock "UUUAAHH!"
"Street, then maybe "
"ONNGG!" thwack
"There, there, my "
thwock "UUNNGGH!"
"child, it wasn't your fault "
"AAARRGG!" thwack
thwackthwockthwackthwock wock wack wock wack wock wock tock tock tick tock . . .
"Out!"
"Out? Out?! Are you blind? The goddamned ball was a goddamned foot inside the line!"
"Language, Father, language."