The Fords Say Thank You

During the past month, some 45,000 Americans have received thank-you cards from the residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. The President and his wife were responding to the extraordinary flow of sympathy and encouragement in messages to the White House since Betty Ford's cancer operation.

The well-wishers have ranged from Emperor Hirohito of Japan and West German President Walter Scheel, to schoolchildren who laboriously copied out their letters of friendship. A number of women who have also undergone mastectomies--including Alice Roosevelt Longworth, the 90-year-old daughter of Teddy Roosevelt--took the time to write. Mrs. Ford's illness also produced a cornucopia of gifts, which have generally been passed along to hospitals, plus contributions in her name, including a $5,000 check to the American Cancer Society.

While the get-well-soon notes continued to flood in, the President last week gave the latest medical bulletin on his wife's recovery. "She's giving me a few harsh words," he told a G.O.P. audience in Grand Rapids. "I'm being silenced more and more--and that's a sign she is getting better."

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