Barbara Pierce, the future Barbara Bush, is shown in her graduation photo from a finishing school in Charleston, S.C., in 1943. (AP)
Barbara Bush, who is preparing to die, has said she doesn’t fear death. That may be because the 92-year-old former first lady has faced it before, in the hardest way imaginable.
In 1953, soon after George H.W. Bush had moved his family to Midland, Tex., to get into the oil business, the couple’s 3-year-old daughter complained about feeling tired. Usually, Pauline Robinson “Robin” Bush, the much-doted-on only girl of the Bush kids, was as rowdy and healthy as her older brother George W. and baby brother Jeb. Barbara decided to take her to a pediatrician.
Her diagnosis was shockingly abrupt. The doctor called the Bushes a few days later with a word neither had ever heard before: leukemia. The complaint had been fatigue; the prescription was to take their child home to die.
[Barbara Bush, former first lady, turns to ‘comfort care’]
“Her advice was to tell no one, go home, forget that Robin was sick, make her as comfortable as we could, love her — and let her gently slip away,” Bush wrote in her 1994 memoir. “She said this would happen very quickly.”
Robin Bush sitting on porch steps in Greenwich, Conn., in June 1953, wearing a party hat. (George Bush Presidential Library)
But the Bushes had means and determination, and they fought the death-sentence diagnosis, beginning a months-long ordeal that would have lifelong impacts on a family that would cometo include two presidents.
USA Today reporter Susan Page, who is writing a new biography of Barbara Bush, spoke to the former first lady about the episode last fall, 64 years to the month after Robin’s death. Sitting in her Houston living room, facing a portrait of her forever-young daughter, the tears were fresh.
The day after getting the bad news, the Bushes flew with Robin to New York, moving into the apartment of George H.W. Bush’s grandparents on Manhattan’s East Side. His uncle was a doctor at Sloan Kettering, a leading cancer center even when cancer was barely understood and nearly taboo to mention.
[The fake news that haunted George Washington]
Robin stayed in the hospital for seven months, having regular bone marrow tests and blood transfusions, which drove her father from the room while her mother remained resolutely at her side. On one quick outing to Maine, Robin finally saw her two brothers, whose pictures were taped to her hospital headboard but who had no idea their sister’s life was ebbing away.
In October, Robin died with her parents in the room. “For one last time I combed her hair and held our precious little girl,” Barbara wrote.
They gave the little body that had been claimed by a mysterious disease over to medical research, then had their daughter buried in a family plot in Greenwich, Conn.
George H.W. Bush with his wife, Barbara, and son, George W., in Rye, N.Y., during the summer of 1955 — two years after Robin’s death. (AP)
Back in Texas, George W. Bush has recounted the day his returning parents came to pick him up at school in their big green Oldsmobile. He recalled his delight at the prospect of seeing his baby sister.
“I remember seeing them pull up and thinking I saw my little sister in the back of the car. I remember that as sure as I’m sitting here,” he told The Washington Post in a 1999 interview. “I run over to the car, and there’s no Robin.”
Barbara Bush described the death of her daughter and the grief that followed as an agony made more bearable by her relationship with her husband. Later, she would marvel that the tragedy that splits many couples had brought them closer.
“In this case, it tested the marriage and made it stronger,” Page said.
George W. has said Robin’s death forged a bond with his mother that he leaned on through his father’s presidency and then his own. Both felt responsible for shoring up the other.
In a Post profile about that mother-son relationship in 1999, Barbara Bush described the moment she realized young George was bucking her up.
One day … she heard her son tell a friend that he couldn’t come out because he had to play with his mother, who was lonely. “I was thinking, ‘Well, I’m being there for him,’ ” she recalled. “But the truth was he was being there for me.”
“That started my cure,” she wrote in her memoir. “I realized I was too much of a burden for a little 7-year-old boy to carry.”
Former president George W. Bush, center, waves along with his parents and wife, Laura, after arriving on Marine One at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington on March 23, 2008. (AFP/Getty Images)
The Bushes had three more children, including another girl, Dorothy. The family rose from mere prominence to true dynasty, with portraits hanging on official walls in Washington, Texas and Florida. George H.W. and George W. were the first father-and-son presidents since John and John Quincy Adams.
But one portrait remained on more private walls.
“It hangs within clear view of her chair,” Page said of the rendering of Robin that still keeps Barbara company in the Bush’s Houston living room.
After the George H.W. Bush Library was established in College Station, Tex., the family had Robin’s body moved to a small, gated burial plot on the grounds.
When Barbara Bush’s extraordinary life ends, she will join her daughter there.
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Barbara Bush, former US First Lady, has become the latest death hoax victim after a news website claiming to be CNN reported that the wife of former President George H. W. Bush had died amid news of her serious illness.
The website that hosted the Barbara Bush death article, which can be viewed here, stated that she died ‘peacefully in her sleep’ on Sunday, April 15 2018, according to a spokesman for the Bush family, apparently hours after it was announced that she would not be seeking further medical care.
A Barbara Bush death hoax has emerged after a website claiming to be CNN said she had died
Barbara is currently in Texas spending time with her family. She is known for her support in the political campaigns of her husband, George H. W. Bush and her sons George W. and Jeb Bush. She took on literacy as her cause while she was First Lady because of her grandson’s difficulty with it.
Neil Bush reently revealed that his mother is unable to walk. He said: ‘As my mom has become more and more frail – she's not able to walk anymore and take her dogs out and that kind of thing – we have quality time and we're sharing this quality time with other family members and friends that come by to read,’ he said.
CBS also temporarily published Barbara Bush’s obituary but had to quickly delete the article, which read 'Do not publish'. But who is Barbara Bush?
Who is Barbara Bush?
Born Barbara Pierce on June 8, 1925 in Manhattan, New York, she grew up in Rye before studying at the Ashley Hall school in Charleston, South Carolina. She met George Herbert Walker Bush at the age of 16 and the couple were married in 1945, while he was on leave as a Naval officer during World War II.
Barbara and George H.W. Bush married in January 1945 at the First Presbyterian Church in Rye
George and Barbara have six children together and the family moved to Midland, Texas where her husband entered politics. She is the second woman in history to be both a wife and a mother of a US President after her son George W. Bush was elected as the 43rd President.
In the 1950s, Barbara’s hair began to turn from brown to white while her daughter Pauline, known as Robin, struggled through treatment for leukemia at the age of three, but sadly died in October 1953. She became known as ‘everybody’s grandmother’ and her husband referred to her as ‘The Silver Fox’.
After wearing a triple-strand false pearl necklace to her husband’s presidential inauguration in 1989, she sparked a trend and the piece of jewellery became associated with the First Lady. She later admitted that she had chosen them to hide her neck wrinkles and a version was made available for $125 at Texas A&M University.
Following her run as First Lady, she went on to support her eldest son George W. after he announced he would be running for President in 1999. Though she said at one stage that other families should have the opportunity of running and that ‘we’ve had enough Bushes’, she later appeared in a campaign advert for Jeb in 2016.
George and Barbara Bush have six children together and the family moved to Midland, Texas
Did Barbara Bush die?
No.
On Monday, April 16, 2018, a website called ‘breaknews-cnn.com’ published a story claiming that Barbara Bush had passed away which resulted in a social media storm with many offering their condolences to the Bush family.
CNN’s Sam Feist was forced to take to Twitter to confirm that the news story was a hoax and on the same day, granddaughter Jenna Bush-Hager provided an update on Barbara on Today.
‘Barbara and I talked to her last night. She’s in great spirits, and she’s a fighter. She’s an enforcer. She reminded me not to believe everything you read, so we’re grateful for her, for everybody’s prayers and thoughts, and just know the world is better because she’s in it.
‘We are grateful for her. She is the best grandma anybody could have ever had - or have,’ Jenna said.
Barbara Bush health
Barbara is currently suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) and Grave’s disease. In April 2018, the Bush family announced that the former First Lady had decided to not seek further medical treatment and had chosen ‘comfort care’.
Comfort care, or palliative care, is a different approach to medical care for people with life-limiting illnesses and aims to relieve pain or stress by improving the quality of life for the individual and their family.
After the news of her failing health, the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy have created a page where fans can leave their well wishes for the Bush family.
Amid news that former first lady Barbara Bush is in “failing health,” CBS news mistakenly published her obituary. But reports of the Bush matriarch’s demise are greatly exaggerated.
Here’s how she’s actually doing:
A source close to the Bush family tells CBS News' Jenna Gibson that, while Mrs. Bush's COPD makes it difficult for her to breathe, she is alert and was having conversations last night. She was also having a bourbon. — Katie Watson (@kathrynw5) April 17, 2018
On Monday, the Bush family announced that Mrs. Bush would not seek further medical treatment and has instead decided to seek “comfort care” as her health fails. Bush has been hospitalized several times over recent years as she struggled with congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
According to Bush’s granddaughter, “Today” host Jenna Bush Hager, she is in “great spirits” as she rests with family members.
“She’s a fighter. She’s an enforcer,” Bush Hager said Monday. “We’re grateful for her, for everybody’s prayers and thoughts, and just know the world is better because she’s in it.”
Barbara Bush is spending her time surrounded by people she loves, drinking bourbon, and we love her for that. Cheers, Mrs. Bush.
Barbara Bush has not died, despite a report that was published by a fake news site designed to look like CNN. The former first lady is said to be in “great spirits,” despite her declining health, and nothing has changed beyond that update.
On Monday, April 16, “breaking-cnn.com” published a story claiming that Mrs. Bush had passed away. However, the original post is currently unavailable, and links to the story published by site will bring you to an error page. You can see the site’s post here. You can read an excerpt from the bogus report below.
“Former first lady Barbara Bush has died ‘peacefully in her sleep,’ a spokesman for the Bush family said she died on Sunday evening. 92-year old Bush died hours after announcing that she will not seek additional medical care. She made headlines in the past 24 hours that she was in failing health and would not seek additional medical care after a series of recent hospitalizations.”
The story sent the internet into a frenzy, with many social media users posting things like “RIP Barbara Bush.” The more people have been tweeting and posting to Facebook about the false story, the more others have been led to believe that Barbara Bush was dead.
CNN was quick to rectify the situation, however, confirming that the “news” post about Bush’s death was not legit. Check out Sam Feist’s tweet below.
Incorrect. CNN is not reporting that Barbara Bush has died. This is a bogus website posing as CNN. https://t.co/W5R4rZh1vN — Sam Feist (@SamFeistCNN) April 17, 2018
On Monday morning’s episode of Today, Bush’s granddaughter, Jenna Bush-Hager, gave an update on her grandmother.
“Barbara and I talked to her last night. She’s in great spirits, and she’s a fighter. She’s an enforcer. She reminded me not to believe everything you read, so we’re grateful for her, for everybody’s prayers and thoughts, and just know the world is better because she’s in it,” Bush-Hager said. “We are grateful for her. She is the best grandma anybody could have ever had — or have,” she added.
Another source echoed that sentiment, telling CNN that Mrs. Bush “remains feisty and in great spirits.”
Barbara Bush has been suffering from congestive heart failure and COPD. Over the weekend, a spokesperson for the Bush family released a statement on Barbara Bush’s current health.
“Following a recent series of hospitalizations, and after consulting her family and doctors, Mrs. Bush, now age 92, has decided not to seek additional medical treatment and will instead focus on comfort care. She is surrounded by a family she adores, and appreciates the many kind messages and especially the prayers she is receiving,” Jim McGrath said in a news release Sunday, according to Politico. Mrs. Bush is being cared for at her home in Houston, Texas.
Since the announcement, the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy has created a page where people can leave their well wishes for the former first lady.
On April 15, another death hoax of sorts started after CBS News accidentally published an obituary for Barbara Bush. The headline read, “DO NOT PUBLISH – Former first lady Barbara Bush dies at age 92 DO NOT PUBLISH,” according to Business2Community. CBS has since removed the live post.
