Posted on 06/11/2004 1:21:41 AM PDT by kattracks
When Ronald Reagan could no longer recognize his elder son, hugs took the place of familiar words, Michael Reagan said Thursday, speaking emotionally of their relationship during his father's descent into Alzheimer's. "As the years went by and he could no longer recognize me, I began a process of hugging him whenever I would see him. I would hug him hello and hug him goodbye," Michael Reagan said during a tribute to his father at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, part of the White House complex.One time, he said, he forgot to hug his father goodbye. The former president followed him out the front door and stood with his arms open.
"I ran back and gave him a hug," Reagan said, his voice cracking with emotion.
He said the greatest gift his father had given him was faith.
"I know where he is. I know he's in heaven," said Reagan, 57. "Someday I want to be there with him, and I know I will be. My father and I, and all of us, will be dancing before the great Father in heaven, Alzheimer's-free."
More than 200 people who gathered for the event, mostly former Reagan administration workers, gave Michael Reagan a standing ovation after his speech.
Reagan political buttons inside large frames sat on easels. In the middle of the stage, behind the lectern, was a picture of Reagan wearing a cowboy hat and smiling broadly.
Reagan's daughter, Patti Davis, speaking in a 1996 interview that aired for the first time Thursday, expressed regret that she rebelled so much against her parents.
During the Reagan administration, Davis wrote a book criticizing her father as overly distant and openly disagreed with his political views.
"I wanted to be a bridge between the politics of my generation and the politics that he represented," she told Tom Brokaw on "NBC Nightly News."
Davis granted the interview on the condition it not be aired until her father's death.
"I didn't realize that you don't build a bridge out of anger," she said.
Davis said she felt "a bit left out" because of her parents' devotion to each other, but later realized that it offered hope "that there can be love like that in this mortal world." She said her father often tried to mediate by writing notes or calling when she wouldn't speak to her mother.
"I hope that his legacy will be sort of beyond politics ... that he sort of fed people's imaginations about what was possible," Davis said.
Nancy Reagan spent Thursday at Blair House, the presidential guest house across the street from the White House. Dignitaries stopped by to pay their respects. Her son, Ron Reagan, and Davis also were there.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher were among the visitors. Thatcher signed a condolence book, writing "To Ronnie - "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, one of four eulogists at Reagan's funeral service Friday, talked with Nancy Reagan for more than a half-hour. He said she "looked good, very dignified."
"Given the very painful circumstances, she's in remarkably good shape," he said.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, speaking through a translator, said he "told her I felt very privileged to have an opportunity to work with one of the greatest American presidents."
He said he reminisced with Nancy Reagan about a visit many years ago to the Reagan presidential library in California and a tour of the grounds conducted by the former president. At one point, Reagan stopped and pointed.
"He told me that would be the spot he would be buried and right next to him would be buried Mrs. Reagan," Nakasone recalled. He asked Nancy. Reagan if that still was the plan and she said it was.
President Bush, who returned Thursday from a Georgia summit with world leaders, and his wife, Laura, also visited with Mrs. Reagan for about 40 minutes at Blair House.
In a telephone interview, Reagan family spokeswoman Joanne Drake said Nancy Reagan had been moved by the outpouring of love and respect for her husband. Drake said that during Wednesday's flight to bring the former president's body from California to Washington, Nancy Reagan spent some time alone with the casket, then was joined by the three surviving Reagan children. Daughter Maureen, from Reagan's first marriage, died from cancer in 2001.
Drake said Nancy Reagan also recounted the former president's final moments before death last Saturday.
"She told me that as he neared death and it became evident it was close, he opened his eyes and he gazed at her. His eyes were as blue as ever and he closed them and died. She told me it was the greatest gift ever," Drake said.
/john
He said the greatest gift his father had given him was faith.
He said the greatest gift his father had given him was faith.
He said the greatest gift his father had given him was faith.
bears repeating.
I read this one out loud to my mother. Thank you.
maybe I'm nuts but I always thought the "adopted" son Michael looked more like Ronald Reagan than his own kids.
Hugs are God's touch. He knew what he was doing and it works.
You're not nuts,I have always thought the same thing.Also Michael has his father's love for this country.
Any child of a man as powerful and busy as RR is destined to feel left out and even ignored at times -- especially a daughter. Daughters need their dads for a whole host of reasons, sons do, too, but their needs are a little different. I'm thinking of Patti and all she must have felt. Nancy is lucky to have her children around her now. When you think about RR's life, it's like a Greek tragedy. He reached undreamed of power and influence. He changed the world and saved millions of lives, but was cut down by that dread disease, Alzheimer's.
My Dad was becoming incoherent just before he passed, and was unable to speak due to a tube in his throat. The day before he died, he signaled to my Mom that he wanted to whisper something to her, so she put her face down above his mouth. Instead of whispering to her, he lifted his head (!) and planted a huge wet kiss on her cheek. She was totally startled and SOOOO pleased. She knew immediately that he had kissed her goodbye. What a gift that was to her!!
Wow. Simply astonishing. I'm forwarding this to my family and friends.
Ping...heartwarming article on President Reagan.
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