UM president Donna Shalala, a longtime Shriver friend, spent an hour at the hospital Saturday with Eunice, husband Sargent Shriver, 92, and their family. Shalala, 67, has known Sargent since the 1960s, when he headed the Peace Corps and she was a volunteer. ''He came to visit me and my group in Iran,'' Shalala says. ``We were living in a mud village.''
Eunice Kennedy Shriver is recovering at UM Hospital
Shriver matriarch is recovering at UM Hospital
Posted on Wed, Mar. 26, 2008
By JOAN FLEISCHMAN
jfleischman@MiamiHerald.com
Hospitalized in Miami: Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 86, Special Olympics founder and sister of Sen. Edward ''Ted'' Kennedy and the late President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. She's also the mother-in-law of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Son Anthony Shriver says she is recovering from pneumonia at University of Miami Hospital (UMH, formerly Cedars Medical Center, which UM purchased late last year for $260 million).
''She's had challenging health issues for a while now,'' says Anthony, 42, a Miami Beach resident. Schwarzenegger, married to Anthony's sister Maria, said last year during a speech that Eunice had suffered a series of strokes.
UM president Donna Shalala, a longtime Shriver friend, spent an hour at the hospital Saturday with Eunice, husband Sargent Shriver, 92, and their family. Shalala, 67, has known Sargent since the 1960s, when he headed the Peace Corps and she was a volunteer. ''He came to visit me and my group in Iran,'' Shalala says. ``We were living in a mud village.''
Shalala, former secretary of Health and Human Services under Bill Clinton, also worked with Eunice on disability issues including kids with special needs.
Eunice hopes to get out of the hospital Wednesday, Anthony says.
Anthony is the founder of Best Buddies International, a nonprofit that pairs people with intellectual disabilities in ''one-to-one'' friendships and offers job placement. Best Buddies recently placed a client named Shwanda at Joe's Stone Crab, where she bags bread for the takeaway section. ''A great worker,'' says Steve Sawitz, Joe's chief operating officer.
The Schwarzeneggers and Shrivers dined at Joe's on Friday night after the Miami Heat game. Sawitz gave the guv two cigars, a Padron and Graycliff.
