In the weeks since then, the very private First Lady has emerged as a very public caretaker in chief–not only to her husband but to the whole nation. While rescuers were combing through the smoky rubble, she appeared on all the morning television shows with a simple, heartfelt plea to Americans: take care of your kids. Two days after the crash she issued letters to schoolchildren, encouraging elementary-school kids to “draw a picture that shows how you are feeling.” She represented the administration at a memorial service in Pennsylvania for the victims of United Flight 93. She appeared on “Oprah” and “60 Minutes,” and she taped two public-service announcements, echoing her earlier themes. “The tragedy of Sept. 11 was meant to cause fear among all Americans, including our children,” she says in one of the announcements. “We can’t let that happen.”
“My wife is a rock,” George W. Bush told religious leaders he met with the following week. He has never needed that steadiness more. Her soothing style calms the sometimes hyperkinetic president. A touch to the back of his neck, and he visibly relaxes. Often by his side in public, she would say very little but grip his hand tightly. “I’ve asked my wife, ‘Are you afraid?’ " Bush told the clerics. “She said, ‘Why would I be?’ " Her faith in his ability to lead has been unwavering, but not always uncritical. The president also told the religious leaders that she disapproved of his macho talk when he called for Osama bin Laden “dead or alive.” As she has done at other crucial times, Laura Bush vetted his language for tone. One cabinet member had a particularly poignant phrase that she liked. “Tell it,” Bush said she told him. “Yes, ma’am!” he replied.
The president has always valued his wife’s ability to preserve a regular life for them. “It’s going to be important for us to maintain a sense of normalcy,” Bush said in an interview with NEWSWEEK before he took office. Even during these difficult weeks, Laura has tried to keep some of their routine. They adore their pets, and play with them together at night. The president has taken time out to laugh aloud at the antics of his black Scotch terrier, Barney, and tell a friend he was thinking of getting another terrier, a white one this time. Mrs. Bush has continued to invite old friends over to the residence. And she has gone back to her favorite pastime: reading. The week after the attack, she finished the book she had started before Sept. 11: Sue Grafton’s “P Is for Peril.”
After the Secret Service got Laura Bush to a secure location that fateful Tuesday, she called her twin daughters and her mother, “just for the comfort of her voice.” She had already spoken to her husband in Florida. But then her thoughts turned to her staff. She made sure they got through to their families as well. She asked chief of staff Andrew Card’s wife, Kathleene, an ordained minister, to counsel the young women who work in her office. “Take care of yourselves,” Mrs. Bush told them. With her help, they did.
