The Sadness, Doubled

I saw the news of Eunice Kennedy Shriver's passing today (may she RIP), and stumbled upon the tragic story of Shriver's sister Rosemary Kennedy. I hardly ever paid any attention to the history and family tree of this big American Political family, and had not known that Rosemary Kennedy existed until today.

Well, perhaps it wasn't a random coincidence that I didn't know she existed... When I put Rosemary Kennedy in Google search, here are the top 3 returns:

Wikipedia
Newsmax.com - Rosemary Kennedy's Inconvenient Illness
Fatboy.cc - Rosemary Kennedy

Long story short, Rosemary Kennedy had a mental illness that was not well understood or accepted / tolerated, especially in a respectable family like the Kennedy's. She was given a lobotomy at 23, and had since been reduced to the mental and physical capacity of a 2-year-old, and had remained in an institution until her death at 86.

It's an incredibly sad story, and though slightly upset by how Rosemary Kennedy was essentially put away and isolated from the rest of her family, I can understand that it was from a time much different from today. While there is still a ton to be done, I'm proud to say that we as people have slightly progressed since then (at least in terms of how people with mental illness or developmental disabilities are viewed and treated).

An interesting note came out of the Washington Post's obituary for Eunice Shriver today, which makes me think that facts / details about what happened to Rosemary Kennedy are still very much a point of contention. The earlier version of the obit, which can be found (I'm pretty sure in its full and original form) in Kansas City's The Star, writes:

Because medical opinion held that visits from family members would be too upsetting for someone in Rosemary’s condition, no one visited her for years. She died in 2005.

The obit was revised by afternoon in Washington Post's website:

Family members were initially told not to visit because medical opinion held that such interruptions would be too upsetting for someone in Rosemary's condition. According to a spokesman for the Special Olympics, Shriver and her siblings later became frequent visitors to St. Coletta and included Rosemary in family gatherings and other activities. Rosemary Kennedy died in 2005.

Maybe I'm never under public scrutiny and can never understand... why care so much about what the public thinks? Wasn't that what at least in part led to Rosemary Kennedy's unfortunate story?