The former first lady of US, Barbara Bush has died at the age of 92 following a recent series of hospitalizations.
According to the family’s spokesperson, Mrs. Bush had been in failing health in recent days and she reportedly had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure.
Despite that she served as US first lady, Barbara Bush was also a mother to the country’s former president George W Bush and also the mother to the former Florida governor Jeb Bush who both have since paid tribute in different statements to their gone mother.
“Our souls are settled because we know hers was,” George W Bush said, adding that his mother was “a woman unlike any other who brought levity, love, and literacy to millions”.
“To us, she was so much more. Mom kept us on our toes and kept us laughing until the end.”
Her other son Jeb Bush said, “I’m exceptionally privileged to be the son of George Bush and the exceptionally gracious, gregarious, fun, funny, loving, tough, smart, graceful woman who was the force of nature known as Barbara Bush.”
Also the current US president Donald Trump said, “Me and the first lady Melania Trump join the nation in celebrating the life of Barbara Bush.”
“As a wife, mother, grandmother, military spouse, and former First Lady, Mrs. Bush was an advocate of the American family,” the president said in a written statement.
The US’s first black president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle praised Bush as “the rock of a family dedicated to public service”.
In a joint statement, the Obamas said Bush lived her life “as a testament to the fact that public service is an important and noble calling; as an example of the humility and decency that reflects the very best of the American spirit”.
Born in New York in 1925, Barbara Pierce married George HW Bush on 6 January 1945. They had six children including the former president George W Bush.
Bush was one of two women in American history to be both the wife and the mother of US presidents. The other was Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams
