Posted on 06/05/2008 9:26:38 AM PDT by The_Republican
Tomorrow is the fourth anniversary of my father's death. For anyone who has lost a loved one, those anniversaries are both sad and sweet. The sadness is obvious—you don't stop missing the person who has gone; you don't stop wishing you'd had one more year, one more day. The sweetness sneaks up on you. It comes in the form of memories, some of them long buried. But mostly it comes with the realization that nothing ever dismantled the love between you, even though many things seemed to along the way.
At this time of year in California, the jacaranda trees are blooming. On some streets, there is a canopy of purple above and a blanket of purple blossoms on the pavement below. Jasmine is also blooming; the soft perfume lingers in the air. If I didn't have a calendar, I would still know that this anniversary was upon us. Jacaranda and jasmine will always be the background palette of that time.
As similar as my experience is to anyone else's who has lost a parent, it is also different because my family lived in the public eye. Because the country grieved along with us when my father died. Because tomorrow at the Reagan Library, when my mother and I go to put white roses on my father's grave, there will be more people than usual there, all of them marking the occasion, too.
It seems valuable, I think, in these thorny political times, to remember why so many people mourned so deeply when Ronald Reagan died. It had nothing to do with politics, but rather with the quality of his character. It had to do with his goodness, his dignity—qualities that we as a nation are hungry for. We know we need leadership, but we also know we need compassion.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
The quality of Reagan’s character infused everything he did. Well said by his daughter.
He died on June 5, 2004....today’s date. I know because my dad died a few hours later.....6-5-04
nice that she has made peace with her relationship with Magnus but I can pass on the rest of it
Both of Nancy's progeny were lefty cry babies, I doubt either of them voted for Dad.
“.....remember why so many people mourned so deeply when Ronald Reagan died. It had nothing to do with politics, but rather with the quality of his character.”
Liar.
Actually, I think there is truth to what she said.
Let’s not trash Patti’s memory of her Dad. We might not agree with her politics, but she’s made peace with her father and her relationship with him.
Let’s give her that at least, can’t we?
“Character is a journey.” -Bill Clinton
Sounds like she's admitting her faults...I can give her some credit for this.
Patti, it’s hard to buy into anything you or ronnie say. Please buy two copies of ‘The Living Years’.
At Ronald Reagan’s funeral, if all of his accomplishments were to be forgotten, then it brought a tear of disbelief and joy to my (then) 28 year old eye.
I was a kid when Reagan was president. His inauguration is my earliest childhood television memory. His accomplishments went largely missed by my child intellect.
But at his funeral, Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev sat next to one another.
_sat next to one another_
That is the most incredible time in my life as an american. Proud of who a president was and what he did at a time in my life when I didn’t understand what he was doing, or who he was. Before I took on any political opinion, I knew that this man through courage and determination brought the world’s superpowers together, so much so that they chose to sit next to one another at his funeral.
Truly, one of the most incredible moments in history.
And the Klintons were sleeping in the front row.
Both.
But that is, of course, not what she said.
She said his politics had “NOTHING” to do with it.
RR’s intimates certainly mourned him for the person that he was, but she is saying that his politics had “nothing” to do with why the rest of America mourned his passing.
She is the one who is injecting her leftist point of view here, and she is clearly wrong.
My momma died the day before. : (
Anyone have a “The Best” DVD recommendation in re. Reagan’s funeral, memorial activities?
This moved me and I’m happy to see Patti finally come to understand her father. One thing that she says in the article is that she didn’t know anyone without regrets about their parents. I do, I am one of them. One reason that she doesn’t is because she never understood the commandment to Honor her mother and father. I do, and I did, and when I lost my parents I could grieve purely, without the regrets and shame of dishonoring them. With all my faults, and theirs, the parents that I grieve were the parents that gave me the tools that I needed to get through it. I’m surely blessed.
Just goes to show who had the vision and who didn't, who was right and who was wrong.
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