Husbands and sons rarely do everything their wife or mother advises, however, the influence of a wise woman with a strong moral compass usually tempers the excesses of many members of her family. Mrs. Barbara Bush is a woman known for her understanding of what helps and threatens people. When it really mattered, despite being the "political wife" and eventually the "politicians mother", she spoke truth to power.
Country matters more than party. Family is the most important accomplishment in a person's life. It is not fame and power which is the measure of success, in her view, but the riches of relationship within your family.
Many spout off about "family values" without living it. Barbara Bush lived it, usually without spouting off that much about it. But when she did, it was usually personal, as a mentor, as a mother, as a grandmother.
Her warmth and decency, her intelligence, and those wonderful moments when she cast aside the code of silence imposed upon politicians' wives and spoke her opinion endeared her to us.
When the George Bush Library was being dedicated, I was honored to have Thanksgiving Dinner with a friend's family. My friend's brother was a chef and his team cooked for the dedication of the George Bush Library. He shared with me how astounded he was that day to look up and see Mrs. Bush and President Bush in his kitchen. They had gathered up every living former President and First Lady of the United States and brought them to the kitchen to meet the staff who had prepared their dinner. These are the realities of a thoughtful woman, of a woman who honors our nation and out state by honoring people where she met them, however she could, without fanfare or expectation of demands of praise for herself.
To the family, I send my condolences. To her, I say: Well done! Thank you for your example. Thank you for not keeping silent. Thank you for touching people in the many ways which were natural to you! Thank you for helping to keep the people in your life in touch with reality while forces propelled them away from what you knew should really matter.
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