My Encounter With A Former President

Former president, George H. W. Bush is one of the presidents of my time that I would enjoy meeting, which is why my unlikely encounter with him in 2000 remains a highlight in my writing career.

I’ll try to make this as brief as possible, but a bit of background is needed.

One morning, The Man and I drove to College Station to visit the George Bush Library. As long as I’ve been old enough to notice, I’ve admired George and Barbara Bush for a number of reasons. One, I think they are modest and down-to-earth people—the kind of folks a country girl like me could share a pot of beans with and feel totally at ease. But more important, I always appreciated the fact that Mr. Bush displayed great leadership skills during his presidency. As former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said, “When George Bush was president of the United States, every single head of government in the world knew they were dealing with a genuine leader.”

The George Bush Library impressed me so much that I came home and wrote about it, and on September 24, 2000 the piece was published in The Dallas Morning News, along with a great drawing of the former president, by Randy Mack Bishop.

A few days later, I walked to the mailbox and discovered a package addressed to me. The return address was from my then-editor at The Dallas Morning News, so I thought nothing of it, except I noticed it was a lot bigger than the normal envelope that he usually sent my tearsheets in, following publication.

I opened the bulky package and inside was yet another package, addressed to me, in care of The Dallas Morning News—with a return address from the "Office of George Bush."

My mouth fell open. I think my knees even shook a little. What on earth was going on?

Inside the package was a personal note from the former president, saying that he had read the column I wrote about his library, and how much he enjoyed it.

He had enclosed an inscribed soft-cover copy of his fascinating book, All the Best, and said he hoped I enjoyed reading it “half as much” as he enjoyed reading my article. And then, in his own handwriting, as a post-script to the note, he penned, “Dayle – We ran out of hard cover copies—not one in the office—so sorry.”

By this time, I was in a bit of shock and sitting down. And, for some reason, there were tears in my eyes. Silly perhaps, but to think that a former president actually read what I wrote in a newspaper was humbling enough within itself. Add to that the fact that he took the time to dictate a letter, then add a hand-written note at the bottom, then inscribe a book to me, then have someone get it all together and mail it to me, in care of the newspaper, well ... I was deeply honored and humbled and overwhelmed. And that’s putting it mildly.

A few days later, I wrote to thank him for his kindness and generosity, and to let him know he had given me an unforgettable moment as a writer. 

Even a decade later, the memory of this still warms my heart.

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