Theirs was a love story rarely seen in the modern day, let alone in the political world. But the love shared by George HW Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush remained rock solid, right up until her passing Tuesday evening.
The pair were married on January 6th, 1945, when she was just 19 years old and remained steadfast and loyal to each other for 73 years thereafter.
According to his chief of staff, Bush was “broken-hearted” over the loss of his “beloved Barbara,” and he remained at her side the entire day holding her hand.
Former President George H.W. Bush “is broken-hearted to lose his beloved Barbara, his wife of 73 years. He held her hand all day today and was at her side when she left this good earth.”
— Alex Johnson (@MAlexJohnson) April 18, 2018
During a football game between the Houston Texans and the Cincinnati Bengals in 2014, the couple was captured on the jumbotron during the stadium’s ‘kiss cam’ segment.
The reaction was priceless.
After news of Mrs. Bush’s passing broke, historians and journalists began sharing a hand-written love letter that the future President sent to his then-fiancée Barbara Pierce on Dec. 12, 1943.
According to historian Michael Beschloss, Bush was a pilot for the U.S. Navy at the time during World War II.
It began, “My Dearest Bar.”
Navy pilot George H.W. Bush writes to his fiancee Barbara Pierce, December 1943: pic.twitter.com/p3gltpaMAq
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) April 18, 2018
The man who would be President begins the letter by mentioning “how desperately happy (he) was to open the paper and see the announcement of our engagement.”
The couple had met at a Christmas dance when she was 16.
“I married the first man I ever kissed,” Mrs. Bush would later recall. “When I tell my children that, they just about throw up.”
The only love letter Barbara Bush kept from George HW during World War II (the others were lost). It is dated December 12, 1943. “How often I have thought about the immeasurable joy that will be ours someday. How lucky our children will be to have a mother like you—“ pic.twitter.com/9n9GDx7lAM
— Carlos Lozada (@CarlosLozadaWP) April 18, 2018
“I love you, precious, with all my heart and to know that you love me means my life,” the letter to ‘Bar’ reads. “How often I have thought about the immeasurable joy that will be ours someday. How lucky our children will be to have a mother like you.”
The elder Bush would go on to proclaim that he couldn’t wait to return to her from the war.
“Bar, you have made my life full of everything I could ever dream of — my complete happiness should be a token of my love for you,” he said.
Share this wonderful love story in remembrance of First Lady Barbara Bush!