Jenna Bush Hager Shares Tribute Letter to Her “Ganny”

Former First Lady Barbara Bush died on Tuesday evening, leaving behind five children, 17 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. Shortly after her grandmother died, Today anchor Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of George W. Bush, left a note on Instagram for her. On Thursday morning, she read a lengthier letter to her late grandma, whom she called “Ganny.”

“When we lost you, we lost one of the greats,” she began. “You were our family’s rock—the glue that held us together. I hope you know in your final days, how many people prayed for you—how many people told me they loved you.”

The 36-year-old twin, whose sister Barbara Bush is their grandmother’s namesake, went on to say that people always stopped her in the street to tell her how much they loved her grandmother, but “it always felt good; we didn’t mind sharing you with the world.” She also referenced her grandmother’s other nickname, “The Enforcer,” because, she said, “you were a force, and you wrote the rules.”

In his own statement, via his spokesman Wednesday, George H.W. Bush also referred to his late wife as “The Enforcer,” while updating supporters on their family.

“I always knew Barbara was the most beloved woman in the world, and in fact I used to tease her that I had a complex about that fact,” Bush said in the statement, via Time. “But the truth is the outpouring of love and friendship being directed at The Enforcer is lifting us all up. We have faith she is in heaven, and we know life will go on—as she would have it. So cross the Bushes off your worry list.”

In her letter, Bush Hager shares a story about how she and her sister once ordered peanut-butter sandwiches to the White House bowling alley. Their grandmother was not happy.

“We couldn’t wait for someone to deliver what was sure to be the fanciest sandwich of our lives,” she said. “Then, you opened the door, scolding us, telling us under no circumstances could we order food in the White House again; this was not a hotel. You taught us humility and grace . . . You always said that you were one of the luckiest women to ever live, but Gans, I am filled with gratitude because you were ours. We are the lucky ones.”

Via a phone call Thursday morning, Bush Hager told her co-hosts at Today that she and her family are doing well and that her grandfather misses his wife. “Because he loves so fiercely, I think, in his own way, in his old age, he’s trying to be the one to make the jokes, because he doesn’t want us to worry about him. I think that just shows his humility and his integrity. We love him so much.”

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