I gravitated to the bookcase this afternoon and pulled out the 1994 memoir written by former First Lady Barbara Bush, her smiling face on the cover looking back at me as I fanned through the pages of photos from Bush family highlights throughout the years.
On this spring Sunday afternoon, an official statement was issued from the office of former President George H.W. Bush about his wife:
Barbara Bush. What a lady. Ever gracious even while being a rock who anchored her family to reality amidst their wealth, she wielded a wit that endeared her to the nation.
Her book dedication gives a glimpse of this remarkable wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother: “To faith, family, and friends; and to George Bush who taught me that these are the most important things in life.”
Indeed. Their love story began when they were 16 and 17 … and it continues to this day, as noted in an April 4, 2018, story in USA Today [1]:
It’s been decades, but Barbara Bush is still very much in love with her husband.
The former first lady wrote about former president George H. W. Bush in a note for the spring edition of Smith College’s alumnae magazine [2].
“I am still old and still in love with the man I married 72 years ago,” Barbara Bush wrote in the life updates section for the magazine.
In the Preface of “Barbara Bush: A Memoir,” she wrote:
“George Bush knows how I feel. He is the hero.”
And in an earlier paragraph of the Preface, Mrs. Bush noted:
“I also note that we seem to weep a lot in this book. We are an emotional group and rather like a good tear or two. Please also notice that we cry when we are glad and when we are sad. Love brings a tear. Friends bring a tear. A smile, sweetness, even a kind word brings a tear.”
There are probably some tears today with the sad news of Mrs. Bush’s failing health, even as she is wrapped in prayers and love. Thinking of the entire Bush family at this difficult time….