On This Day - My Annual Reminder...

On April 12 of 1945,  one of the 20th century's most powerful  figures passed away in his southern retreat. Franklin Delano Roosevelt  succumbed to a brain hemorrhage just three weeks before Hitler's forces began the process of unconditional surrender to the Allies.
How sad it is to contemplate his not being present, as leader of the West against Nazi tyranny - on the day of victory, Roosevelt could not be there. What a  supreme form of irony, made even more poignant by his being stricken with polio, at age 39, back in 1921.
History imparts to us the reality of a  world leader who prevailed during the Great Depression and World War II - from a wheelchair, beset by almost constant pain, wearing about eight pounds of leg braces.
When asked more than once what, if anything, was the main source of inner strength, he always referred to the poem "Invictus" by Henley.
"My head is bloody, but unbowed".
"I am the master of my fate".
"I am the captain of my soul".
These particular statements in the poem captivated and held him.
Another example of how the power of Man's  Art  can forge a portion of his history into being...