When we think about America's first ladies, there is something almost unreal about them. Like film stars or royalty, they can seem almost distant, detached from the world we live in. Not so Barbara Bush. She was as real as they come.
She was born Barbara Pierce into a wealthy, socially prominent family. She married a Yale man from a similar background. She probably thought her destiny was to have a comfortable life among the anonymous elite, raising a family and dedicating her free time to leisure activities and charitable work. The kind of life most of her friends would go on to enjoy.
But destiny had other plans.
Those plans would take her from the prosperous East Coast to the oilfields of West Texas, from the capital of the Lone Star State to the capital of the whole nation. Along the way was plenty of joy and not a little heartache, including the loss of a daughter to leukemia at age 3. There was growth, too. The privileged young lady became a strong woman, the dominant presence in her family's lives. The wife of one president, the mother of another.
And she became beloved by the people of this great country. Her down-to-earth manner-she refused to dye her prematurely gray hair and admitted wearing large imitation pearls to hide the wrinkles in her neck-and the kind of wisdom and common sense you would expect from that perfect grandmother we all wished we had.
She stood by her husband and son as they navigated the Washington political waters, but she was never afraid to speak her mind when she disagreed.
She was, in short, everything we could want in a first lady. And, indeed, remains one of the most admired in our history.
In her later years, Mrs. Bush suffered from Graves' disease, congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This week, her family announced she was in failing health and had discontinued treatment. Barbara Bush died Tuesday at the age of 92. She had a long life and lived it well, to the benefit of her family and the people of America.
She will be missed.