He also fought colon cancer and skin cancer during his presidency. Nancy Reagan had several brushes with dangerous health problems including breast cancer. Because she was always concerned about him, she did not always take care of herself, which contributed to her health issues. She used to wanly joke that he could fall asleep easily, but she would sit up for hours munching on an apple, fretting and thinking and worrying.
Even in the post-presidency, the private Reagans continued to inform the American people of their health. In 1989, the seventy-nine-year-old Reagan had been in Mexico horseback riding—jumping, galloping—at Bill Wilson’s ranch when he was thrown by the rangy horse he was astride. He hit his head and later went to the Mayo Clinic to have fluid drained from his brain. Quite literally, holes were drilled into his head to drain the excess fluid.
He showed his plucky side, even then. The doctors at the clinic had to shave the hair from the right side of Reagan’s head. Arriving back in California, he doffed his baseball cap to let the world see his half-shaved head and the big grin on his face. Mrs. Reagan could be seen behind him in the photograph, a troubled look on her face as she reached to put the cap back on, but for Reagan it was one big joke. He loved telling jokes—Irish jokes, the farmer’s daughter jokes—but he also loved making fun of himself. He once said the jokes you tell on yourself are the best kind, and he often used his age or tall tales of his laziness to poke fun at himself and endear himself to his audiences.
While in the hospital Boris Yeltsin came to visit him.83
When it came to the diagnosis of his incipient Alzheimer’s, there was no humor—only honesty. Nancy Reagan said of when they learned of Ronnie’s affliction,
That day we had talked it over and we both thought that we should make this, he should make this public. We always had done that. With his two cancers, my cancer. Because we felt that it helped people, which it did. He had had colon cancer, prostate cancer. I had had breast cancer. And it did help. And we felt the same would happen here. And we went into the library and he sat down at the table and just wrote.84
At the time, the only real way to be sure if someone had the dreaded disease was through an autopsy.
Over the years, she kidded about her proximity and influence but also spoke bluntly. During the presidency she joked, “This morning I had planned to clear up the U.S.-Soviet differences on intermediate-range missiles but then I decided to clear out Ronnie’s sock drawer instead.”85 But in her book My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan, she remarked, “For eight years I was sleeping with the president, and if that doesn’t give you special access, I don’t know what does! So yes, I gave Ronnie my best advice—whenever he asked for it, and sometimes when he didn’t.”86
In her book of letters from Reagan, she said, in past tense, “We’ve had an extraordinary life . . . but the other side of the coin is that it makes it harder. There are so many memories that I can no longer share, which makes it very difficult. When it comes right down to it, you’re in it alone. Each day is different, and you get up, put one foot in front of the other, and go—and love; just love.”87
She was also frank about the years of ordeal and understatedly said, “Well, it’s not a wonderful time.”88 All through the ordeal she was remarkably candid and also strong. In public when asked about her husband’s condition she would often just shrug her shoulders and say, “He’s okay,” or “It’s okay.” She was eloquent if also angry at times. “You know that it’s a progressive disease and that there’s no place to go but down, no light at the end of the tunnel. You get tired and frustrated, because you have no control and you feel helpless.”89
Joanne Drake understood. She told reporters that while all were mourning, there was also a certain amount of relief that Reagan was no longer in pain. “While it is an extremely sad time for Mrs. Reagan, there is definitely a sense of relief that he is no longer suffering and that he has gone to a better place.”90
Drake was doing her best to hold it together, but even this strong and competent and fiercely loyal woman was sometimes seen fighting back tears. She was the consummate professional, who everybody said was the first person to call in a crisis because she’d know what to do, but for her it was also very personal. “Working for President Reagan was an honor, one I wish every American could experience. He was an extraordinary man.”91
Over the years, she’d become close to the family, especially Nancy Reagan. “It’s going to be a hard six days ahead of them. As you can understand, the family is in deep mourning over the loss of a husband, a father, a grandfather and their hero . . .” She was asked by reporters about her twenty years with Reagan but, true to form, Drake kept the attention off her and on the family and the moment and the solemnity. Only briefly did she let on that the whole ordeal had been personally tough. Of his passing, Drake said gently, “It was a very, very private moment.”92
Other aides were coming forward now to tell their stories and recount memories about Reagan. Frank Donatelli was an original Reaganite, going back to his years as a “YAFer”—the Young Americans for Freedom—and organizing the very first Conservative Political Action Conference in 1973 along with Jim Roberts, a fellow young conservative activist, at which the featured speaker was outgoing California chief executive Ronald Reagan.
Donatelli later worked on an independent campaign in 1976 supporting Reagan and in 1980 and ’84 as a top aide on the Reagan campaigns and, in between and after, a top aide in the Reagan White House. Over the years, Frank had seen everything in the revolution.
Late in the life of the Reagan administration, he was accompanying Reagan on Marine One out to Andrews Air Force Base. Reagan was looking out the window idly, Donatelli thought. He asked, “Mr. President, what do you see down there?” Reagan replied, “Look at that . . . look at those homes. They’re beautiful homes and they’re owned by working people. I’ve got to show Gorbachev how much freedom works in America and how American working men and women can make a better life for themselves. There’s no reason why they can’t do that in his country also.”93
Sometime thereafter, Reagan did just that.
He did not want to defeat the Soviet people; he wanted to defeat the Soviet system. Reagan, like a canny old fox, knew the way to beat an idea was with a better idea.
Bob Novak went on CNN to say that the Gipper was “an intellectual. He read the economic texts of Bastiat, Steel, and Compton in Britain.” Even more so, Novak said, “I don’t believe there was anybody who controlled him or had his ear.”94
The Reagan Library was actively encouraging aides, staffers, and friends to tell their stories to the national media, knowing it would be an important part of the historical record. Most kept the focus off themselves and on the man they had once called Mr. Reagan, Governor, and Mr. President. Pete Souza, the affable and friendly White House photographer, wrote a long piece for the Chicago Tribune on his travels with Ronnie. Souza had been a silent witness to history, recording the good times, the bad times, and the tragic times. He told of the breakdown at Reykjavik, and how Reagan stuck to his guns on the Strategic Defense Initiative. Souza said Reagan had no ground rules for photos except to please not photograph him when he was putting in his hearing aids.95
Some aides in the Bush White House moved quickly to politicize the death of Ronald Reagan. “From the shores of Normandy to President Bush’s campaign offices outside Washington, Mr. Bush and his political advisers embraced the legacy of Ronald Reagan on Sunday, suggesting that even in death, Mr. Reagan had one more campaign in him—this one at the side of Mr. Bush . . .” Bush’s chosen chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ed Gillespie, was leading the Bush band, beating the drums on how similar Reagan and Bush supposedly were. “The parallels are there. I don’t know how you miss them.”
Somehow, the media d
iscerned that both Bush and Reagan had a “swagger.”96 But the first time a comparison was made, the Bush aides squawked because the networks, rather than broadcasting Bush’s speech at Normandy, devoted most of the time to airing old footage of Reagan at Normandy and talked about Reagan. It was the same with the nation’s newspapers. Reagan’s passing dominated the front pages while coverage of Bush was relegated to deep inside the “A” section.
Tackily, some Bush aides were speculating to the media if Nancy Reagan would campaign for Bush and dug up quotes by John Kerry attacking Reagan. Kerry’s aides responded in kind by circulating quotes from the elder Bush, stumping in the 1980 GOP primaries, attacking Reagan. A lot of news stories just hours after Reagan’s death were devoted to how it could all be politicized, demonstrating how little the GOP consultant classes had learned. In 1980, when the Desert One mission to rescue more than fifty American hostages being held in Iran failed and eight American servicemen died, Reagan could have rightly leveled President Jimmy Carter, but instead, he softly said, “It is a time for us as a nation and a people to stand united.”97
Some other Bush aides and GOP consultants worried that the contrast between Reagan and Bush would redound badly to Bush if they put too much emphasis on the comparisons. Bush was no “Great Communicator” and conservative writer Tucker Carlson once quipped that watching Bush give a speech was like “watching a drunk man cross an icy street.”98 The coverage Bush did receive—especially in the European press—was hostile and angry. The Europeans were steaming mad about the invasion of Iraq and though Bush in his speech did not mention the country, he tried to draw an allegory between the liberation of Europe and the invasion of Iraq.
Meanwhile Senator John Kerry simply cancelled all his public events the week of the Reagan funeral. He did keep a previously scheduled commitment to give a commencement speech at Bedford High School in Michigan where he again praised Reagan lavishly and called him a “modern giant.” He told the students, “Because of the way he led, he taught us that there was a difference between strong beliefs and bitter partisanship. He was our oldest president . . . but he made America young again.”99
Bush later announced he, too, would cancel his week of events and those of his surrogates but not before “Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner” attacked “Mr. Kerry for raising questions about the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act.”100
Mrs. Reagan had gotten involved in Alzheimer’s research in part because of the son of old friend Charlie Wick. Filmmaker Douglas Wick had a daughter who had developed juvenile diabetes and in turn had started to work on diabetes research. Doug’s parents, Charlie Wick and his wife, Mary Jane, had been practically family to the Reagans dating back to the late 1950s. From that point to the present, the Wicks and the Reagans spent every Christmas together. It made perfect sense that Wick would be a Reagan pallbearer.
Just weeks before Reagan passed away Nancy made a very rare trip to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and gave a touching speech there about her husband’s struggles against his own illness. She received an award, which was presented by Michael J. Fox. Her work on behalf of Alzheimer’s research to promote education and understanding was widespread and deep and impactful.
All hailed her efforts and all the snarky comments about Nancy Reagan and fashion and high society and other unflattering things had almost stopped entirely. When she spoke publicly, it was a passionate plea for more research on diseases or to deflect questions about her husband’s condition. Only sometimes did she talk through her own self-imposed zone of privacy. Two years earlier, she’d told Mike Wallace of CBS, “the golden years are when you sit back, hopefully, and exchange memories, and that’s the worst part about this disease, there’s nobody to exchange memories with, and we had a lot of memories.”101
Through her grief she said, “I’d love to talk to him about it and there were times when I had to catch myself because I’d reach out and start to say, ’Honey, remember when?’ ”102
Only families in such situations really understand how horribly tragic Alzheimer’s is and not only what it does to its victims, but also what it does to the victim’s family. The ten-year battle was a loss that was pre-ordained. With cancer, or strokes, or other maladies, there was hope, even just a glimmer. With Alzheimer’s, there was never any hope of a recovery. The news was always bad and always got worse. Mrs. Reagan took on the brunt of the family’s obligation, not because the children didn’t want to help—they did—but because she would not have it any other way. When someone suggested a vacation for herself, she scoffed. She was going to take care of Ronnie her way.
Reagan’s White House doctor, John E. Hutton, came forward to tell his frank tale. It had been two years since he’d last seen the Gipper, the care passing to round-the-clock nurses who specialized in Alzheimer’s and senior care. On a Sunday afternoon in 2002, Hutton went to the Reagan home and saw his patient sitting on the back patio with a view of Los Angeles. “Mr. Reagan displayed his usual friendliness and affability, but his mental deterioration was apparent. ’I knew he did not know me.’ ”103
He did not know how Reagan finally died, but speculated that it may have been due to “food inhaled into his lungs” that led to “aspiration pneumonia.” This, Dr. Hutton said, was how many Alzheimer’s patients passed away. “Two weeks ago, he was kind of status quo,” he said based on a phone conversation with Mrs. Reagan.104
Although he only had been Reagan’s doctor since the end of the presidency, he was one of the few people Mrs. Reagan would allow to see the president; he sometimes would stay for a week, helping Reagan and Mrs. Reagan by doing little things such as helping him in and out of chairs and once catching him in a hallway. “Mr. President, I will never let you fall,” he told the failing man.105 Still, he said Reagan seemed unconcerned.
In 2001, when Reagan fell and broke his hip, Hutton said everyone was amazed how easily Reagan went through the process, talking to the doctors, urging them to see other patients more in need. “Whatever challenge he met, he just took it in stride.” Hutton was a retired army brigadier general. After the hip surgery, the first thing Reagan ate was some vanilla ice cream, which made perfect sense since everybody knew what a voracious sweet tooth he had.106
Along with Charlie Wick, Joanne Drake announced the other Reagan pallbearers including Frederick (“Fred”) J. Ryan, who was chairman of the board of directors for the Reagan Foundation, longtime friend Mike Deaver, entertainer Merv Griffin, and Dr. Hutton.
It was also announced that the Reagan coffin would remain closed for the week. In fact, there would be no open coffin at any of the memorial services. Dignity was the watchword.
The world had seen and would forever see the terrible assassination of John Kennedy in Dallas, thanks to Abraham Zapruder and later the Internet. One can only imagine how much pain and suffering, wasted time, effort, and money would have been spared without the existence of the Zapruder film. How much pain would the Kennedy family have been spared from, from not only the imagery of his death but also from the conspiracy theories espoused by nutcases. Those and other crazies got lots of publicity and generated lots of profit off the pain and suffering of the American people, and as a by-product never allowed the Kennedy family to bury their beloved Jack and move on.
In the end, the Zapruder film only created questions and produced no answers and spawned a culture of cynics and a cloud of doubt that spilled over on Vietnam, Richard Nixon, and the nation as a whole. Few believed that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone even in the face of overwhelming evidence. And the nation and the Kennedy family had to live with all this for the rest of their lives.
Kennedy family historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. had written that the family wrestled for a few moments with an open casket, but when they saw what the mortician had not been able t
o do, they quickly decided to have a closed casket for JFK.107
Going back even farther, during the Lincoln funeral procession, a photograph of his body had been surreptitiously taken while on display in New York. The photograph was in direct contravention of the directives of the Lincoln funeral planners. And, from time to time over the years, rumors swept the nation that Lincoln’s corpse had been “kidnapped” and was being held for ransom. Indeed, on one occasion it was attempted. His remains also were interred and disinterred on several occasions. It was humiliating.
Near the turn of the century, city fathers in Springfield decided to reinter Lincoln once and for all, under tons of concrete, and thus put to rest the rumors forever. So poor Lincoln was disinterred yet again, and all his former friends and aides including John Hay and his last living son, Robert, were summoned to Springfield to inspect the corpse and pronounce it to be Lincoln. When the coffin was opened, there was Abe, looking just as he had the day he died. Only his black suit was deteriorating. They then realized that to survive the two-week train trip across the country, with multiple stops along the way, Lincoln had been heavily embalmed. He was covered with little sprinkles of red, white, and blue cloth and this, too, they could not discern until it dawned on the men there that this was the deteriorating remains of the American flag that had covered his remains.
All this and more was on the minds of the Reagan family and their intimate friends like Ryan, who had been a part of the funeral plans for years.
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