Theirs was ‘the most amazing love story’

The lifelong romance of George and Barbara Bush took center stage at her funeral Saturday, as speakers paid tribute to the couple’s 73-year marriage and unshakable bond.

“Our family has had a front-row seat for the most amazing love story,” son Jeb Bush said in his eulogy. “Their love was a constant in our lives.”

The former Florida governor recalled how his mother would receive a love letter from his father every year on their Jan. 6 wedding anniversary.

With daughter Dorothy Bush Koch comforting him, George H.W. Bush was brought to tears (above) as his son read from one of those notes, written in 1994:

“Will you marry me? Oops, I forgot, we did that 49 years ago. I was very happy on that day in 1945, but I’m even happier today. You have given me joy that few men know. I have climbed perhaps the highest mountain in the world. But even that cannot hold a candle to being Barbara’s husband.”

Jeb Bush also recalled her final hospital stay, when his father, 93, “got sick on purpose so that he could be with her.”

He described how his father was wheeled into her room as she slept and took her hand.

“His hair was standing straight up, he had on a mask to improve his breathing, he was wearing a hospital gown — in other words, he looked like hell,” Jeb Bush recounted.

“Mom opened her eyes and said, ‘My God, George, you are devastatingly handsome.’

“And every nurse, doctor, and staffer had to run into the hallway because they all started crying.”