Editing Rosalind Franklin (section)

==Personal life==
Franklin was best described as an agnostic. Her lack of religious faith apparently did not stem from anyone's influence, rather from her own line of thinking. She developed her scepticism as a young child. Her mother recalled that she refused to believe in the [[existence of God]], and remarked, "Well, anyhow, how do you know He isn't She?"<ref>Glynn, p. 12.</ref> She later made her position clear, now based on her scientific experience, and wrote to her father in 1940:
{{blockquote|[S]cience and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. Science, for me, gives a partial explanation of life&nbsp;... I do not accept your definition of faith i.e. belief in life after death&nbsp;... Your faith rests on the future of yourself and others as individuals, mine in the future and fate of our successors. It seems to me that yours is the more selfish&nbsp;...<ref>Glynn, p. 62.</ref> [as to] the question of a creator. A creator of what?&nbsp;... I see no reason to believe that a creator of protoplasm or primeval matter, if such there be, has any reason to be interested in our insignificant race in a tiny corner of the universe.<ref name="Maddox, p. 61">Maddox, p. 61.</ref>}}

However, Franklin did not abandon Jewish traditions. As the only Jewish student at Lindores School, she had Hebrew lessons on her own while her friends went to church.<ref>Glynn, p. 19.</ref> She joined the Jewish Society while in her first term at Cambridge, out of respect of her grandfather's request.<ref>Glynn, p. 44.</ref> Franklin confided to her sister that she was "always consciously a Jew".<ref name="Maddox, p. 61"/>

Franklin loved travelling abroad, particularly [[trekking]]. She first "qualified" at Christmas 1929 for a vacation at [[Menton]], France, where her grandfather went to escape the English winter.<ref>Glynn, p. 16.</ref> Her family frequently spent vacations in Wales or Cornwall. A trip to France in 1938 gave Franklin a lasting love for France and its language. She considered the French lifestyle at that time as "vastly superior to that of English".<ref name="Polcovar, p. 33">Polcovar, p. 33.</ref> In contrast, Franklin described English people as having "vacant stupid faces and childlike complacency".<ref>Polcovar, p. 59.</ref> Her family was almost stuck in Norway in 1939, as World War II was declared on their way home.<ref>Glynn, p. 33.</ref> In another instance, Franklin trekked the French Alps with Jean Kerslake in 1946, which almost cost her her life. Franklin slipped off a slope, and was barely rescued.<ref>Glynn, p. 79.</ref> But she wrote to her mother, "I am quite sure I could wander happily in France forever. I love the people, the country and the food."<ref name="Polcovar, p. 41">Polcovar, p. 41.</ref> Of note are also Franklin's visits to [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]. She collaborated with Slovenian chemist {{ill|Dušan Hadži|sl|Dušan Hadži}} whom she met at [[King's College London|King's College]] in 1951. In the 1950s, she visited [[Socialist Republic of Slovenia|Slovenia]] one or more times where she held a lecture on coal in [[Ljubljana]] and visited the [[Julian Alps]] ([[Triglav]] and [[Bled]]). Her best-known trekking photograph was presumably created by Hadži in May&nbsp;1952 and depicts Franklin against the background of the natural rock formation of [[Heathen Maiden]]. She also collaborated with the Croatian physicist Katarina Kranjc. She held lectures in [[Zagreb]] and [[Belgrade]] and visited [[Dalmatia]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:DOC-VT7KXXWA |first=Marko |last=Dolinar |title=Obiski Rosalind Franklin v Sloveniji |language=sl |trans-title=Visits by Rosalind Franklin in Slovenia |year=2020 |volume=67 |issue=4 |journal=Acta chimica slovenica |publisher=Slovenian Chemical Society |pages=98–105|doi=10.17344/acsi.2020.6474 |s2cid=228807059 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Franklin made several professional trips to the United States, and was particularly jovial among her American friends and constantly displayed her sense of humour. William Ginoza of the [[University of California, Los Angeles]], later recalled that Franklin was the opposite of Watson's description of her, and as Maddox comments, Americans enjoyed her "sunny side".<ref>Maddox, p. 277.</ref>

In his book ''The Double Helix'', Watson provides his first-person account of the search for and discovery of DNA. He paints a sympathetic but sometimes critical portrait of Franklin. He praises her intellect and scientific acumen, but portrays Franklin as difficult to work with and careless with her appearance. After introducing her in the book as "Rosalind", he writes that he and his male colleagues usually referred to her as "Rosy", the name people at King's College London used behind her back.<ref>Watson, p. 16.</ref> Franklin did not want to be called by that name because she had a great-aunt, Rosy. In the family, she was called "Ros".<ref>Glynn, p. 157.</ref> To others, Franklin was simply "Rosalind". She made it clear to an American visiting friend, Dorothea Raacke, while sitting with her at Crick's table in [[The Eagle, Cambridge|The Eagle]] pub in Cambridge: Raacke asked her how she would like to be addressed, she replied, "I'm afraid it will have to be Rosalind", adding "Most definitely not ''Rosy''."<ref name="Maddox, p. 288">Maddox, p. 288.</ref>

Franklin often expressed her political views. She initially blamed [[Winston Churchill]] for inciting the war but later admired him for his speeches. Franklin actively supported Professor [[John Ryle (physician)|John Ryle]] as an independent candidate for parliament in the [[1940 Cambridge University by-election]], but he was unsuccessful.<ref name="Glynn, p. 52">Glynn, p. 52.</ref>

Franklin did not seem to have an intimate relationship with anyone and always kept her deepest personal feelings to herself. After her younger days, she avoided close friendship with the opposite sex. In her later years, Evi Ellis, who had shared her bedroom when a child refugee and who was then married to Ernst Wohlgemuth<ref name=genealogy/> and had moved to Notting Hill from Chicago, tried matchmaking her with [[Ralph Miliband]] but failed. Franklin once told Evi that a man who had a flat on the same floor as hers asked if she would like to come in for a drink, but she did not understand the intention.<ref>Maddox, p. 261.</ref> She was quite infatuated by her French mentor Mering, who had a wife and a mistress.<ref name="Polcovar, p. 41"/> Mering also admitted that he was captivated by her "intelligence and beauty".<ref>Polcovar, p. 51.</ref> According to [[Anne Sayre]], Franklin did confess her feeling for Mering when she was undergoing a second surgery, but Maddox reported that the family denied this.<ref>Maddox, p. 286.</ref> Mering wept when he visited her later,<ref>Glynn, p. 82</ref> and destroyed all her letters after her death.<ref>Maddox, p. 287.</ref>

Franklin's closest personal affair was probably with her once post-doctoral student [[Donald Caspar]]. In 1956, she visited him at his home in Colorado after her tour to [[University of California, Berkeley]], and she was known to remark later that Caspar was one "she might have loved, might have married". In her letter to Sayre, Franklin described him as "an ideal match".<ref>Maddox, p. 283.</ref>

===Illness, death, and burial===
In mid-1956, while on a work-related trip to the United States, Franklin first began to suspect a health problem. While in New York, she found difficulty in zipping her skirt; her stomach had bulged. Back in London, Franklin consulted Mair Livingstone,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Livingstone |first=Anna Eleri |date=2015-05-18 |title=Mair Eleri Morgan Thomas |url=https://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h2627 |journal=BMJ |language=en |volume=350 |pages=h2627 |doi=10.1136/bmj.h2627 |issn=1756-1833}}</ref> who asked her, "You're not pregnant?" to which she retorted, "I wish I were." Her case was marked "URGENT".<ref>Maddox, p. 284.</ref> An operation on 4 September of the same year revealed two tumors in her abdomen.<ref>Maddox, p. 285.</ref> After this period and other periods of hospitalisation, Franklin spent time convalescing with various friends and family members. These included Anne Sayre, Francis Crick, his wife Odile, with whom Franklin had formed a strong friendship,<ref name="Maddox, p. 288"/> and finally with the Roland and Nina Franklin family where Rosalind's nieces and nephews bolstered her spirits.

Franklin chose not to stay with her parents because her mother's uncontrollable grief and crying upset her too much. Even while undergoing cancer treatment, Franklin continued to work, and her group continued to produce results – seven papers in 1956 and six more in 1957.<ref>Maddox, p. 292.</ref> At the end of 1957 Franklin again fell ill and she was admitted to the [[Royal Marsden Hospital]]. On 2 December she made her will. Franklin named her three brothers as executors and made her colleague Aaron Klug the principal beneficiary, who would receive £3,000 and her Austin car. Of her other friends, Mair Livingstone would get £2,000, Anne Piper £1,000, and her nurse Miss Griffith £250. The remainder of the estate was to be used for charities.<ref>Maddox, p. 301.</ref>

Franklin returned to work in January 1958 and was also given a promotion to Research Associate in Biophysics on 25 February.<ref>Maddox, p. 302.</ref> She fell ill again on 30 March and died a few weeks later on 16 April 1958 in [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], London,<ref>GRO Register of Deaths: JUN 1958 5c 257 CHELSEA – Rosalind E. Franklin, age 37.</ref><ref>Maddox, pp. 305–307.</ref> of [[bronchopneumonia]], secondary [[carcinomatosis]], and [[ovarian cancer]]. [[Health effects of radiation|Exposure to X-ray radiation]] is sometimes considered to be a possible factor in Franklin's illness.<ref name="nova-photo51">{{cite web |title=Defending Franklin's Legacy |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/photo51/elkin.html |work=Secret of Photo 51 |series=[[Nova (American TV program)|NOVA]] |access-date=10 November 2010}}Along with genetic predisposition; opinion of CSU's Lynne Osman Elkin; see also March 2003 ''Physics Today''</ref>
Other members of her family have died of cancer, and the incidence of [[gynaecological cancer]] is known to be disproportionately high among [[Ashkenazi Jews]].<ref>Maddox, p.320.</ref> Franklin's death certificate states: ''A Research Scientist, Spinster, Daughter of Ellis Arthur Franklin, a Banker.''<ref>{{cite news |last1=Murray |first1=Ruby J. |title=Historical Profile: Rosalind Franklin |url=http://www.dumbofeather.com/conversation/historical-profile-rosalind-franklin/ |access-date=27 August 2014 |work=Dumbo Feather |year=2011}}</ref> She was interred on 17 April 1958 in the family plot at [[Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery]] at Beaconsfield Road in [[London Borough of Brent]]. The inscription on her tombstone reads:<ref>{{cite web |title=Rosalind Franklin tomb |url=http://himetop.wikidot.com/rosalind-franklin-tomb |work=Himetop |access-date=27 August 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Friedman |first1=Meyer |last2=Friedland |first2=Gerald W. |title=Medicine's 10 Greatest Discoveries |publisher=Universities Press |isbn=978-81-7371-226-5 |page=227 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yI1hQVyJSJgC&pg=PA227|year=1999 }}</ref>
<blockquote>
IN MEMORY OF <br /> ROSALIND ELSIE FRANKLIN <br /> מ' רחל בת ר' יהודה [Rochel/Rachel daughter of Yehuda, her father's Hebrew name]<br /> DEARLY LOVED ELDER DAUGHTER OF <br /> ELLIS AND MURIEL FRANKLIN <br /> 25<small>TH</small> JULY 1920&nbsp;– 16<small>TH</small> APRIL 1958 <br /> SCIENTIST <br /> HER RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES ON <br /> VIRUSES REMAIN OF LASTING BENEFIT <br /> TO MANKIND <br /> ת נ צ ב ה [Hebrew initials for "her soul shall be bound in the bundle of life"]
</blockquote>

Franklin's will was proven on 30 June with her estate assessed for probate at £11,278 10s. 9d. (equivalent to £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|11278.5375|1958|r=0}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK}}{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}}).<ref name="probate">{{cite web |url=https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/Calendar?surname=Franklin&yearOfDeath=1958&page=6#calendar |title=Franklin, Rosalind Elsie |author=<!--Not stated--> |year=1958 |website=probatesearchservice.gov |publisher=UK Government |access-date=14 September 2021 }}</ref>