Meanwhile at the Roosevelt estate, Hyde Park, Eleanor received an alarming phone call from Elliot Brown, a socially prominent builder, whom Franklin had lured into the Navy with a commander’s commission. Brown was calling to warn Eleanor that when the ship docked in New York harbor, on September 19, she should be prepared to meet it with a doctor and an ambulance. By now, the flu epidemic was raging. Soon, over 1,350 New Yorkers would succumb to the disease in a single day. Draft calls were being postponed to hold down the contagion.
