Sadly, Barbara Pierce Bush passed away this evening.
The official statement from the Bush’s spokesman:
Sunday, the family announced that Mrs. Bush would no longer receive treatment for multiple ailments but would instead focus on comfort in her final days.
Reports from Monday said the former first lady was alert and chatting it up with family over a glass of bourbon.
Bush was as classy a broad (and she was truly a broad) as ever existed.
In what seems like at least 10 lifetimes ago, I issued immigration documents to international students and scholars at Texas A&M University, which is also home to George H.W. Bush’s Presidential Library.
Somewhere during my tenure, I took graduate courses in international affairs at the Bush School where the Bush’s had an apartment. Secret Service presence on campus always gave away their visits.
The Bushs were very much part of the school. Bush 41 gave class lectures and on more than one occasion, I ran into Mrs. Bush who was out in the courtyard with their dogs. She was always incredibly kind, genuine, and approachable.
Later in life, I moved to Rye, New York, where Mrs. Bush was from. It’s a lovely little village in Westchester.
Mr. and Mrs. Bush were married an incredible 73 years. Their care and love for one another was always evident and admirable.
“You have given me joy that few men know,” George Bush wrote to her, according to a collection of letters published in 1999.”I have climbed perhaps the highest mountain in the world, but even that cannot hold a candle to being Barbara’s husband,” he also said.
The Bushs prayed aloud together nightly. By all accounts, Mrs. Bush wasn’t fearful of moving on from this world:
…she said she didn’t fear death for herself or “my precious George.””I know there is a great God, and I’m not worried,” she said.
Truly a life well-lived.
She will be deeply missed.
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