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发帖数: 4796 | 1 The last words spoken by former president George H.W. Bush came barely an
hour before he died, in a telephone conversation with his son, former
president George W. Bush. The 43rd president had expressed his love for his
father. “I love you, too,” the 41st president replied.
The president’s eldest son was on speaker phone, one of a series of final,
farewell conversations between the family patriarch and his children,
arranged Friday evening as it became clear that the hours were drawing short.
Bush had struggled for days at his home in Houston, not getting out of bed,
eating almost nothing, seemingly in decline from the vascular parkinsonism
that had restricted his speech and mobility in his final years. But he
seemed to find ease in his final moments, said James A. Baker III, Bush’s
friend and confidant of 40 years. “It was a very gentle and peaceful and
easy passing.”
Baker and his wife, Susan, were there at the end. The former secretary of
state had visited Bush three times that day, the first on Friday morning.
Baker had risen early, as usual, and after a long walk decided to pay a
visit to Bush, who lived not far away. Baker knew the former president was
ailing.
George H.W. Bush, 41st president of the United States, dies at 94
He arrived about 7:15 a.m. to find Bush sitting up in bed. One of Bush’s
caregivers told the former president that “Secretary Baker is here.”
“He looked up at me and said, ‘Bake, where are we going?’ ” Baker
said in a telephone interview Saturday afternoon. “I said, ‘Jefe, we’re
going to heaven.’ And he said, ‘That’s where I want to go.’ ”
Bush had always been “Mr. President” to Baker when Bush was in the White
House and Baker was his secretary of state. But once Bush was out of office,
Baker said, he always called him “Jefe,” Spanish for “chief.”
That morning, the former president seemed better than he had in several days
. After not eating anything on Thursday, Bush enjoyed a big Friday breakfast
of three eggs, a bowl of yogurt and fruit drinks. When Baker left, he and
others close to Bush thought he might be bouncing back, as he had many times
before.
“We’re going to have another week or two of semi-normal stuff,” Baker
recalled thinking. “He was really quite with it and alert.”
Baker paid his second visit hours later, before heading out to dinner with
his wife. It was about 5:45 p.m., and by now clear that “things were going
a little bit downhill,” Baker said. “Not critically, but some of the
vitals were beginning to show disturbing signs.”
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Ronan Tynan, the Irish tenor, was in town and had come to the house to visit
. He and Bush had become friends over the years. Jean Becker, the former
president’s longtime chief of staff, suggested that Tynan sing something.
‘His life was a hymn of honor’: Washington reacts to George H.W. Bush’s
passing
Tynan chose “Silent Night,” and as he sang, Bush mouthed the words to the
beloved Christmas carol. Then Tynan did another song, this one in Gaelic.
“It was a really sweet thing,” Baker said.
As the Bakers prepared to leave for dinner, Susan Baker gave the former
president a kiss on the forehead.
“She said, ‘We love you very much, Jefe,’ ” her husband recalled.
Bush “opened his eyes and said, ‘You better hurry.’ He had his sense of
humor even then.”
A few hours later, the Bakers were heading home from the restaurant when
Baker got a call suggesting that a third visit would be necessary: Bush was
slipping away.
The calls to the children were being arranged as the Bakers arrived. Others
present, in addition to Bush’s doctor and caregivers and Becker, were Bush
’s son, Neil, his wife, Maria, and their son Pierce; a granddaughter,
Marshall; and the Rev. Dr. Russell Levenson Jr., the rector at St. Martin’s
Episcopal Church.
Bush had lost his wife, Barbara, earlier in the year, and his own health had
long been an issue. He had lived an extraordinary life — as a youthful
aviator in World War II, a member of Congress, United Nations ambassador,
director of the CIA, vice president and ultimately president during a
tumultuous time in the world. In his post-presidency, he had become a symbol
of a style of politics that had seemingly gone out of fashion. He also had
jumped out of airplanes.
He was resilient in the face of his ailments. He had been determined to get
to the home in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he had spent summers for much of
his life. He was equally determined, Baker said, to return to Houston this
fall. He declared that he no longer wanted to go in and out of the hospital
when he suffered setbacks. He was determined to stay at home until the end.
Bill Clinton: George H.W. Bush’s Oval Office note to me revealed the heart
of who he was
Baker was a regular visitor, their friendship forged through years of
political battles and the travails of leadership during periods of conflict
and upheaval.
A few weeks ago, Baker and Bush were sitting together in the library of Bush
’s home. “I said, ‘You want to live to be 100, don’t you?’ ” Baker
recalled. “He said, ‘Yes I do, but I don’t think I’m going to make it.’
”
In the end, Bush fell a bit short of that goal, but not before making his
peace and saying his goodbyes. About 40 minutes after telling his eldest son
how much he loved him, the 41st president passed away.
Dan Balz is chief correspondent at The Washington Post. He has served as the
paper’s deputy national editor, political editor, White House
correspondent and Southwest correspondent.
Democracy Dies in Darkness
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