Jeb Bush remembers his mom: 'She would never stop teaching'
Her children knew her as “the enforcer,” but Barbara Bush was the one doing the consoling and providing the comic relief at a gloomy family gathering after the 1992 presidential election.
President George H.W. Bush had lost his bid for a second term, and his kids had rallied around him in their Houston home.
As the family matriarch, Barbara Bush had been reading in her bedroom when she suddenly appeared in the living room to ask the somber group a few questions: How do you get your driver's license? Is it easy to fly commercial these days?
She provided a much-needed moment of levity in the wake of her husband's painful defeat. But she also reminded her family that their world would be very different outside the White House and that “life goes on,” her son, Jeb Bush, recalled Wednesday.
“She would never stop teaching,” he said.
On the day after her death, her son shared memories of the plain-spoken former first lady and her marriage — the longest in presidential history — speaking Wednesday to a crowd of roughly 1,000 in Oak Brook.
The former Florida governor and 2016 GOP presidential candidate insisted on keeping his commitment to give a keynote speech at an Elmhurst College leadership forum, even as his family prepares for his mom's funeral arrangements.
“If she was here, she'd say, 'Thank God, you made it,' because she would be very upset if I stayed at home,” said Jeb Bush, who was greeted with a standing ovation. As a member of the Bush family, he said, “You commit to something, you're supposed to show up and do it.”
His mother, who had suffered from congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, died Tuesday evening in her Houston home at age 92. Her family announced Sunday they would focus on “comfort care” instead of seeking medical treatment to prolong her life.
She died with her husband of 73 years at her side.
“He held my mom's hand all day long yesterday,” their son said.
The senior Bush is “surrounded by family love” after the death of his wife, Jeb Bush said. Physically, his father, who has a movement disorder with symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease, is “better than he was a month ago.”
“I called him and he said, 'I'm kind of a crybaby right now. I'm not feeling very good,'” his son said.
Jeb Bush said his mother was 16 years old when she fell in love with his dad the first time they met at a dance.
“You could be at the dinner table with my mom and dad and they would talk to each other without speaking,” Jeb Bush said. “They had this tightness, this bond. They knew what each was thinking. They could finish their thoughts and they could do it telepathically. It's a bond that's just been incredible.”
As first lady, Bush was often rated more favorably than her husband in polls. And their son encountered her popularity whenever someone told him, “I love your mother.”
“That was always code for, 'I'm a Democrat. I can't stand you,'” Jeb Bush said to laughter.
Before he officially launched his presidential campaign, his mother kept her usual candor, saying in a 2013 interview that “we've had enough Bushes.”
She eventually supported his bid, but that initial resistance was news to her son.
“This is the first time I've heard it,” he said. “Five million people are hearing it the same time I am on the 'Today Show' ... Mom, like, could you give me a heads-up?'”
She earned the “enforcer” nickname, her son said, because she taught her children right from wrong and “habits of a more righteous life.”
“She taught us to serve others. She taught us to be civil,” he said. “She taught us to love your family with your heart and soul, and she and my dad basically didn't have to tell us how to do that. They just acted on their love for 75 years.”