Decency, sense made her one to admire
In the best of all worlds no one is ever fully prepared to lose a parent, and yet George W. Bush clearly had peace over his mother’s passing, explaining, “Our souls are settled because we know hers was.”
Barbara Bush, who was 92 when loved ones laid her to rest yesterday, insisted the most essential elements of a welllived life were family, faith and friends, and she knew for certain that she had been blessed beyond measure on all three counts, especially in her 72-year marriage to George H.W. Bush, a World War II hero long before becoming our 41st president.
“I married the first man I ever kissed!” she would say. “When I tell that to my children they just about throw up!” And she’d laugh.
Her hearty laugh correctly suggested she was entirely comfortable in what she believed and why, as if those foundational values made her impervious to the addictive trappings of power and prestige.
“You may think the president is all powerful,” she’d tell reporters, “but he is not. He needs a lot of guidance from the Lord.”
She could make the Almighty sound like a personal consultant.
“I know there is a great God, and I’m not worried,” she’d add, just in case anyone in the media needed amplification.
As reporters drifted away with her quotes she’d caution, “Avoid this crowd like the plague. And if they quote you, make damn sure they hear you.”
She was Molly Goldberg. She was Aunt Bee.
She was common decency infused with common sense and you didn’t have to share the politics of her husband or son to look upon her with admiration. What was it Emerson said? The challenge is to be ourselves in a world that’s trying to make us like everyone else?
Barbara Bush was always herself, which made her a breath of fresh air.
Where advisers and handlers surrounding her men saw voters, this caring lady saw people.
She would always leave audiences with something to chew on:
“Your success as a family and our success as a society depends not on what happens in the White House, but on what happens in your house.”
That was not political ideology; that was grass-roots Americana, and it’s what made her an American treasure.
Scripture tells of that special mother whose “children rise up to call her blessed.”
That’s who Barbara Bush’s kids said goodbye to yesterday.
But she was more than just a blessing to them and their father; indeed, she was a blessing to us all.