Reagan’s family await merciful release (THE GREAT MAN ALERT)

The Sunday Times ^ | September 29, 2002 | Sarah Baxter,

[MadIvan]

HE was a key figure in ripping down the iron curtain and ending the cold war, which brought the 20th century to a close with America as the only superpower. Yet Ronald Reagan’s horizons have shrunk to his bedside as Alzheimer’s disease ravages his mind.

Michael Reagan, his elder son, believes that death would be a merciful release for the former American president.

“It’s time for him to go. It’s very sad,” he said in an interview. “I’m going to hate the day Dad dies. You think you are ready for it, but you never are. But I sometimes pray that if God wants to take him home, then take him home.”

Reagan, 91, sleeps on and off for 18 hours a day, according to his son. He was always a sound sleeper, even when his policies were under attack in the 1980s.

His waking hours are a nightmare of befuddlement.

Reagan fell in the bedroom of his Bel Air home in California in January 2001, broke a hip and has been bedridden ever since. He is fed, washed and cared for 24 hours a day by medical staff, but can neither leave his bed, even for the most basic functions, nor make himself understood.

“Some days are better than others but they are all sad days. You see a man who is referred to as the Great Communicator and he can’t communicate because he doesn’t know who he is. He talks gibberish,” said his son.

Reagan does not know that his daughter Maureen died last August of melanoma at the age of 60. On the day of her funeral he stayed at home. “You wouldn’t have wanted to tell him,” said Michael. “Even if he could comprehend, he would have no way of expressing his feelings.”

Michael, 57, was adopted as a baby by Reagan and his first wife, the actress Jane Wyman. According to family legend three-year-old Maureen was in a Hollywood chemist’s when the pharmacist asked what she wanted. She put 97 cents on the counter and said: “I want a baby brother.” Her birth had been difficult, so the family chose to adopt.Today Reagan’s son is a radio chat show host in California who buried some of his family demons with an autobiography more than a decade ago. The children had many run-ins with their emotionally distant father but Michael now visits him once a month. “He doesn’t know me, but I go there for Nancy, to show up. I hug and kiss him,” he said.

“In some ways I go there out of guilt. We’re not like every family — I was at boarding school from the age of five, so I’m seeing him more than I used to. It’s the way our family works, by appointment — it’s always been by appointment.”

Nancy, who was 81 in July, still looks at Reagan adoringly, said Michael. She wants others to remember him the way he was but even she confessed last week that she was lonely. She was not sure that her husband knew her any more and said: “When you come right down to it, you’re in it alone and there’s nothing anybody can do for you.”

The strain is beginning to tell on her. “She’s frail,” said Michael. “She’s much frailer than she would have been because of Dad’s illness. She’s a professional worrier. She’s always carried a burden of some sort. She worries about what people are saying about Dad, about his place in history.

“I worry that when Dad goes Nancy won’t be far behind because she lives and breathes for Dad.” She need have no fear about history’s verdict on Reagan, whose virtues are frequently invoked in this post-September 11 world.

“George W is closer to my father’s ideology than he is to his father’s,” said Michael, who believes that the September 11 attacks would not have happened under Reagan. “He responded to the Muammar Gadaffis. They knew where he stood.” Despite backing Bush, he thinks his father would have disapproved of the “giant conversation” under way over Iraq.

Libya was bombed in 1986 after a terrorist attack on Americans in West Berlin. “Dad didn’t hold a press conference saying what we’ll do with Gadaffi. He just did it,” said Michael.

Reagan’s descent into Alzheimer’s was remarkably rapid after he left the White House in 1989 and soon became impossible to conceal.

Michael said Reagan’s great ally, Margaret Thatcher, was guest of honour at a birthday party for him in 1993.

“Dad gave Maggie a great introduction, as he always did, and she got a standing ovation. Then the applause stopped and Dad reintroduced her. Everybody stood up and applauded again as if nothing had happened.

“After that Nancy and Dad felt it was time to start thinking about getting the word out about Alzheimer’s.”

In 1994 Reagan published a touching letter about his plight in which he said: “I only wish I could spare Nancy from the painful experience.”

He could not. By 1997 he was still active — some golf, walking on the beach — but his mind was faltering. He would spend hours sweeping leaves from the swimming pool and his secret servicemen would quietly put them back, simply to keep him occupied.

Every now and then he would show a flash of insight, his son recalled. “My daughter Ashley hugged him and said, ‘Grandpa, I love you.’ He looked directly at me and said in a full voice, ‘You know why I’m hugging her? Because she’s a she.’ ” He’d remembered how Michael had complained about his lack of hugs as a child.

Now Michael understands that Reagan was a typical post-war father. At the time, however, the children were often unforgiving and even today the family is politically divided.

At the launch of the battleship USS Ronald Reagan last year, Nancy’s children Patti Davis and Ron Reagan stayed away. “They’re the 1960s generation, the liberals. To them the ship was a killing machine,” said Michael. “I felt sorry for Nancy that day. She fought hard to have the ship commissioned before my father died. It had never been done in anybody’s lifetime before, so it was an honour. I was there with my wife and children. George W Bush was there.

“Nancy and I have not always had the greatest of relationships and I began to wonder if the problem was not that she’s so angry with me but that she’s jealous that the Wyman kids — Maureen and I — would show up no matter what was going on in the family.”

Maureen was Nancy’s chief support until she succumbed to her own illness. In the past year Patti has grown closer to her mother and believes the reconciliation makes her father happy. Nancy said last week: “She thinks he has a feeling of the two of us together. As she says, his soul doesn’t have Alzheimer’s.”

Michael is grateful. “When Maureen passed away, Patti stepped up and she’s there with her mother all the time. It’s been good for Nancy and it’s great for Patti. She’s finally getting close to Dad.”

Maureen sacrificed her own health, Michael believes, by campaigning non-stop for an Alzheimer’s cure instead of fighting her cancer.The time is nearing when Reagan will join her. “Maureen has been waiting for him for a year and has probably got a good spot for him beside her. She’d love it. No brothers, no sisters, no moms. Just her and Dad.” For Michael, it is a consoling thought.

[MadIvan]

I know, but even standing next to a cardboard cutout of the Great One is special. ;-)

Well my understanding is that the current president had a cutout at the place the photo was taken (near the White House). It was a remarkable, remarkable trip, and left a lasting impression. I returned when George Bush Sr. was president and somehow it was less magical.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

I agree. But, we WILL hear them. Their hate for the man will outweight any decorum that they might still have. They will be brutal, count on it.

Then we should be brutal right back. Call them old, washed out liberal hags who couldn't get a date with a loaded shotgun and an oil tanker full of Viagra.

Regards, Ivan

[harpo11]

"As I walk off into the city streets,
a final word to the men and women of the Reagan Revolution,
the men and women across America who for 8 years
did the work that brought America back.
My friends: We Did It.
We weren't just marking time.
We made a difference.
We made the city stronger,
We made the city freer.
All in all, not bad, not bad at all.
And so, goodbye, God Bless you,
and God Bless the United States of America."

President Ronald Reagan's spirit, his energetic determination against the naysayers, his dynamic optimistism, his unflinching stalwart resolve brought down an "evil empire" and raised the Torch of Freedom higher for all the world to see and know that America is the Land of the FRee and the Home of the Brave. Ronald Reagan will forever live richly in our hearts and on the pages of history for eons and will be honored and revered for eternity.

[Sabertooth]

Michael meant that his father didn't lose any sleep over his enemies. He's speaking of the serentiy of President Reagan's confidence in the truth of one's causes.

I also think he's taking a jab at those who used to criticize his Dad for taking naps.

I knew the President somewhat in the late 90s, and even in his illness, his serenity was sublime.

[Vinnie]

Thanks for the beautiful picture

He was truly the right man for the time, after the sad denigration of the Carter years.

. He was inspirational. When he spoke, you knew he meant every word.

His ability to pass legislation with a hostile congress was amazing.

He simply bypassed the legislature and took his cause before the American people. He got the people to put enough pressure on the legislature to pass what he wanted.
George W. could take a lesson from him.

I’m not a student of Presidents, but surely Ronald Reagan will be remembered as one of our greatest Presidents.

If only he were President today.

[baseballmom]

It was not only that you were the Great Communicator -- and you were the greatest -- but that you had a message to communicate. Lady Thatcher

This is the difference between President Reagan and the impeached X42. As the leftist, liberal pundits try to revise the legacy of X42, we will know the truth. There was no message.

[knighthawk]

You know I live in the Netherlands. There the media tried to convince Reagan was the worst thing that ever happened to everyone. A lot of people thought he was just a bad actor, now playing the cowboy in the White House.

But I think he was one of the best leaders in the world ever. And I know I not wrong, for there are so many others who think so too.

[lonestar]

My 86-year-old mother has it, too. I'm the primary care-giver and it's a chore. But here's the deal--

She has no problems or cares. She no longer misses my dad, she doesn't know that most of her friends are gone, she has no cares. She has some pleasures--ice cream! She still enjoys riding in the car. I dread what what the future might bring. Thankfully my mother is healthy, otherwise.

Her biggest concern is, when looking in the mirror, "Does that old woman like us?".

I don't want her in a nursing home because she would be unable to report any mistreatment. For the same reasons, it's hard to leave for any period of time. I came home one time from a meeting and found the sitter asleep with her head on my mother's shoulder. Another time, the sitter fell asleep and the potatoes on the stove burned to the point the smoke alarm went off and the fire dept. came.(Thank gosh we had one; they both could have died of smoke inhalation.)

It's confining when you don't have secret service.

I love Ronald Reagan; I have no pity for Nancy Reagan because she has been spared a lot of the real problems that come with providing for the needs of a person with the disease.

[Tall_Texan]

I agree. But, we WILL hear them. Their hate for the man will outweight any decorum that they might still have. They will be brutal, count on it.

Yes, much like Clarence Thomas, he will be pilloried for what they allege are crimes and yet, in retrospect, they pale before Clinton's -

Thomas: Accused of sexual harrassment by the mentioning of pubic hairs and porn stars before Anita Hill.
Clinton: Accused of exposing himself before an Arkansas woman, accused of rape, certain to have had sexual activity with a female half his age at the office under his employment (which feminists insist fits the definition of sexual harrassment although I don't fully agree).

Reagan: Accused of ushering in a decade of greed and corruption.
Clinton: Personified an actual decade of greed and corruption.

Reagan: Built up huge deficits to build up our military (which then won the Cold War without firing a shot). Clinton: Brought down the deficit (if you can believe his accountants) but squandered our military resources by drastically cutting back our military and using it for petty affairs like Somalia, Haiti and Kosovo where American interests were, at best, minimal. Morale had never been lower.

Reagan: Did nothing for the homeless.
Clinton: Did nothing for the homeless either. It's just that the media's fascination with the homeless disappeared the minute there was no longer a Republican in the White House to blame.

Reagan: Did nothing about AIDS.
Clinton: Did nothing about AIDS either. But, like the homeless, the media dropped their interest as soon as there was no Republican president to blame.

Reagan: Iran-Contra. They particularly hiss at his court testimony where he "doesn't recall" giving the orders to Lt. Col. North. (yet they refuse to entertain the idea that by this time Alzheimer's may have affected his memory).
Clinton: Impeachment. Clinton claims he "doesn't recall" key moments when he probably coached others to perjure themselves or whom else he may have cheated on his wife with yet, unlike Reagan, prides himself on his brilliant intellect and his ability to "focus like a laser".

While the liberals' rage will still produce enough bile to cause frothing at the mouth, anyone who wants to tar the Reagan years can be easily refuted with a comparison to Clinton. The trick is to call them on it and not let them get away with it.

[Tennessee_Bob]

That's the sentence that really got me...

Same here - I was fine until that particular line.

[BibChr]

Yea, but I want to say, "Mike, I know this is the only way you can be sure to get press, but some things belong behind the veil of family privacy. This is one of them."

My other thought I'm sure you'll understand: if Reagan expires, thank God it didn't happen while Clinton was President.

Dan

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

fundle signed up 2002-09-28.

You are about to set a new record for the brevity of a stay on here.

fundle signed up 2002-09-28.
This account has been banned.

Your prescience is impressive.

[cubreporter]

With all the publicity of late about former President Reagan, we too wondered if this is a plan to help prepare America for the sad news that evidently looks like it will come soon. Either way, God bless President Reagan. A great man!

[cubreporter]

Never underestimate them.

[cubreporter]

or that Bill Clinton ever knew!

[cubreporter]

Of course he will attend but you can only imagine what people will think of him. Watch him squirm now and then.

[robomurph]

Was the 1992 Regan Bush rally the one that took place at the regional park in Yorba Linda along the Santa Ana river/91 freeway? If it was, I was there too.

I feel blessed that I was able to see RR at least once in person.

I wonder if GWB was there as part of the campaign? Do you have any idea if he was? That would be an interseting allignment of the planets (RR, GHWB, GWB)!

[yankeedame]

I had to quit reading these posts about 1/4 of the way through. I could hardly see b/c of the tears....

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks, knighthawk. He is a great man, the Great Communicator....Mr.
Gorbachev, tear down this wall !!

He was strongly advised by some not to use that statement.
He said to heck with it, it needs to be said !!

[seenenuf]

Hi Cousin?. THanks for the ping.