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The Gathering. In Palm Beach the President conferred with his wife, his mother, Rose Kennedy, and other members of the family. From his father's three doctors he learned more details about the fact that Joseph Kennedy had suffered an intracranial thrombosis, a blood clot in an artery in the brain. A quickly performed arteriogram—dye injected into the main artery of the neck and photographed by X ray as it flows through the vessels of the brain—had revealed the thrombosis to be in the left cerebral hemisphere, and inoperable. There was some paralysis in Kennedy's right side, and he was unable to speak.
From all parts of the nation, members of the Kennedy clan gathered. Pat Kennedy Lawford flew in from California; Ted Kennedy came by military jet from Boston, bringing with him Dr. William T. Foley, a Manhattan vascular specialist. From Washington came Eunice Kennedy Shriver, on the same plane that brought Secretary of State Dean Rusk to Palm Beach en route to the Bermuda conference. Ted Kennedy. Jean Smith and Ann Gargan spelled one another in a round-the-clock vigil near Room 355. where Joe Kennedy lay. Across the hall, doctors kept their own vigil. On the door to the doctors' room was a bronze plaque: "In Memory of Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.* Donated by Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy. Sr."
Between visits to the hospital. President Kennedy conferred with his aides, tried to keep abreast of his official duties. From Bermuda. Harold Macmillan offered to fly to Palm Beach for his talks with the President, or to call off the conference altogether. But when the doctors reported that Joseph Kennedy might continue in his semicomatose condition for weeks. the President decided to go ahead with his Bermuda plans.
On the day after his stroke, Joe Kennedy showed "improvement." according to his doctors. He was still unable to use his vocal cords, still being fed intravenously and sleeping under sedation most of the time. That afternoon, the military jet carrying Rusk. Ambassador to Britain David Bruce, AECommissioner Glenn Seaborg and other members of the Bermuda conference team arrived in Palm Beach. They left from the airport for the Capton Paul residence (TIME, Dec. 15). where the President was staying. Waiting for them, Jack Kennedy received a telephone call from the hospital. It was his brother Ted. Their father, Ted reported, had awakened and was alert. Abruptly, the President left for the hospital. There, with his brothers and sisters, he spent 20 minutes at Joe Kennedy's bedside. The old man recognized his children but was unable to speak to them.
At week's end the power of speech returned to Joe Kennedy. When Richard Cardinal Gushing visited him and assured him he was going to recover, Joe laboriously replied, "I know I will.'' But his doctors continued to call the ex-ambassador's case "serious."