Well Done Mrs. Bush

Saturday, the memorial service and celebration of the life of Barbara Pierce Bush was held in Houston Texas.  Perhaps you saw it televised, and heard all the lovely, touching, humorous stories of her life told by family and close friends.  There were numerous remembrances of her life and her character and the things and people she held dear, most noted again and again, faith, family and friends.  There was much talk of the kind of woman she was with the words fierce and fiesty coming up again and again.  She was a strong, opinionated, loving, principled, and a tough lady whose nickname, given to her by her children, was “The Enforcer”.

She had chosen ahead of time that her son Jeb, would give a eulogy at her service.  He delivered a picture of her that only a child of hers should give with insight and humor about the woman who was his first and best teacher in life. Yet for all the wonderful examples of the kindness and strength and goodness that were extolled throughout the service and on the many news reports leading up to Saturday, there was one simple act that caught our attention and gave testimony to the kind of mother and teacher she had been to her children.

As the service concluded and the family was invited to exit the church, President George H. W. Bush, Barabra’s husband of 73 years, was the first to leave in his wheelchair out down the long center aisle of the church with the rest of the family in line behind.  There is nothing about that scene that would seem unusual or remarkable.  But take a second look.  Take a look at whom it was who pushed that wheelchair of the 41st President of the United States.  It was the 43rd President of the United States, Mrs. Bush’s eldest son, George W. Bush.

Why is that remarkable?  Because it speaks to the kind of mother she was.  It speaks to the lessons of grace and humility she had taught her children.  There are any number of people who could have pushed that wheelchair down that long church aisle and had it been a member of the secret service or an assistant to President Bush 41, while President Bush 43 just walked along with his wife and family greeting guests and shaking hands, no one would have noticed or thought anything of it.  But President George W. Bush had a mother who had taught him the lesson of loyalty, of humility and of service.  So though he had been the most powerful man on earth at one time as President of the most powerful nation, on this occasion he was a loving and loyal son on that long walk out of the church.  That was no doubt, at least in part, a credit to a mother who had instilled in him those life lessons of humility and service and love of family.   The lessons of putting others first …always, especially if one of your jobs had included being the most powerful leader in the world.  So for that and so many other reasons, we salute our former First Lady Barbara Bush and say… WELL DONE!

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