«Breaking News» Wheelchair-bound George HW Bush never let disease slow him down in later stages of his life

Well after George Herbert Walker Bush left the White House, he showed that age was just a number and that his spirit was as youthful as ever.

The 41st President, who passed away late Friday night, skydived on his 80th, 85th, and 90th birthdays.

In 2013, he shaved his head to show his support for the 2-year-old son of a member of his Secret Service detail who was diagnosed with leukemia.

‘A lot of the agents shaved their head,’ Bush, 89, told his granddaughter, Jenna Bush Hager, who was a correspondent with NBC’s TODAY.

‘I said, “Well why not me?” It was the right thing to do.’

Former President George H.W. Bush free falls with Golden Knights parachute team member Sgt. 1st Class Mike Elliott above College Station, Texas on November 10, 2007

Bush celebrated his 80th birthday with a tandem parachute jump with members of the Army Golden Knights on June 13, 2004

The image above shows Bush celebrating his 90th birthday with a tandem skydive. He is seen above landing in Kennebunkport, Maine on June 12, 2014

The former captain of the Yale baseball team, who was once photographed shaking hands with Babe Ruth, threw out the first pitch of the World Series last year.

In 2010, he and his son, George W. Bush, rode in on a golf cart from the outfield and threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the start of Game 4 of the World Series between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants.

In 2011, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

He also flipped the ceremonial coin at the start of last year’s Super Bowl in Houston.

He made the effort even though he was confined to a wheelchair following his diagnosis of a rare condition known as vascular Parkinsonism.

Though he relied on wheelchairs and scooters to get around, Bush did not let his condition dim his enthusiasm and colorful personality.

The former captain of the Yale baseball team, who was once photographed shaking hands with Babe Ruth, threw out the first pitch of the World Series last year. He is seen above before game five of the 2017 World Series between the Houston Astros and the L.A. Dodgers in Houston

The elder Bush poses with his son, former President George W. Bush (right), and Astros star pitcher Justin Verlander (left) at Minute Maid Park in Houston on October 29, 2017

In February 2017, Bush performed the ceremonial coin toss before Super Bowl 51 between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots at NRG Stadium in Houston

In 2010, father and son once again threw out the first pitch - this time in Arlington, Texas, where the Texas Rangers were playing the San Francisco Giants in the World Series

Bush’s being in a wheelchair meant that his ankles were exposed, and the public suddenly took keen interest in his colorful socks.

It turns out that the socks were Bush’s way of paying tribute to a young man with Down Syndrome who went on to found his own company.

John Cronin and his father, Mark, founded John’s Crazy Socks, which took upon itself a mission to ‘spread happiness through socks.’

John’s Crazy Socks was meant to show what people with mental disabilities are still capable of.

The business donates a portion of proceeds to charitable causes like the Special Olympics and the National Down Syndrome Society.

Last year, John read how President Bill Clinton gave a pair of colorful socks to Bush, who was a huge fan of the socks.

After reading about it, John said: ‘I want to send President Bush some of my socks.’

So he sent a box of socks to Bush’s office in Houston.

This past March, Bush’s office called John and asked for more socks, according to the company web site.

‘I sent him my Down Syndrome Super Hero Socks because I designed them and thought President Bush would like them,’ John said.

Soon afterward, John received a handwritten note from the President.

Bush was an avid wearer of colorful socks. He is seen above at the White House in July 2013

The 41st President formed a special bond with John Cronin, who was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. He founded a company which 'spreads happiness' through selling colorful socks

Bush wore socks made by his friend to mark World Down Syndrome Day earlier this year

The letter read: ‘I am happy to see that you and I have the same taste in fun, colorful socks…We knew that people with disabilities like Down syndrome are capable of doing amazing things if they are given the opportunity.

‘You are a wonderful example of what Americans can do despite the challenges that they face.

‘We are proud of all that you have accomplished.’

Bush and John continued to share a friendship.

On World Down Syndrome Day, Bush tweeted a photo of his socks he wore as a tribute to his friend.

‘Yesterday, I was inspired by my friend John Cronin to wear these beauties from @JohnsCrazySocks for World Down Syndrome Day,’ Bush tweeted.

The cause of helping those with disabilities was close to Bush’s heart. As President, he signed the American with Disabilities Act.

Earlier this year, when Barbara Bush passed away, John sent the President a card ‘telling him I hoped he felt better and how great a woman Mrs. Bush was.’

The President’s office called John and asked for socks that he and his family could wear to honor the former First Lady.

On the day of Barbara Bush’s funeral, the President’s spokesperson tweeted: ‘To honor his wife of 73 years and her commitment to family literacy, for which she raised over $110 million over the course of over 30 years,@GeorgeHWBush will be wearing a pair of socks festooned with books at today’s funeral service for former First Lady Barbara Bush.’

Seeing the former President wear his socks to honor his late wife moved John to tears.

‘I wanted to make President Bush happy with the socks because I know he loved Mrs. Bush,’ he said. 

THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH

George H.W. Bush was largely known for his work in public office, from his time as a Texas congressman and CIA director to his years in the White House as president and Ronald Reagan’s vice president. But the World War II hero and great-grandfather also was an avid skydiver, played in the first-ever College World Series and was the longest-married president in U.S. history.

Here’s a closer look at those and other elements of his life:

NICKNAMES: George H.W. Bush was known to his family as ‘Poppy.’ His wife said her husband was named after his maternal grandfather, who was known as ‘Pops,’ so the younger Bush was called ‘Little Pops.’ The nickname evolved into Poppy, which Bush ‘hated as he got older, but it was hard to break such a long-standing habit,’ Barbara Bush wrote in her memoir. But his grandchildren knew him as ‘Gampy,’ a name he embraced.

MEETING HIS WIFE: Bush met his wife at a dance in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1941. He was a 17-year-old high school senior, while she was 16 and attending school in Charleston, South Carolina, and home for Christmas. The band was playing Glenn Miller tunes, but when he asked her to dance, the music changed to a waltz. He didn’t how to waltz, so they talked. They were married on Jan. 6, 1945, and were the longest-married presidential couple. She died on April 17, 2018.

THE SEA: Bush’s lifelong love of the sea and boats began in Maine, with his grandfather teaching him how to handle and dock a boat. At age 9, he and his 11-year-old brother were first allowed to take out their grandfather’s lobster boat by themselves. Bush wrote in a 1987 book that he loved ‘the physical sensation of steering a powerful machine, throttle open.’ In 2010, to enjoy at his home in Maine, he bought a 38-foot fishing boat, Fidelity V, equipped with three 300-horsepower engines and capable of reaching 75 mph.

THE AIR: During World War II, Bush was one of the Navy’s youngest pilots when he was shot down during a 1944 bombing mission. He parachuted into the Pacific Ocean and was rescued by an American submarine. He fulfilled a wartime promise to himself to someday skydive just for fun in 1997, when at age 73 and over his family’s objections, he bailed out over a military base in Arizona, ‘to show that old guys can still do stuff,’ he said. He later marked his 75th, 80th, 85th and 90th birthdays with parachute jumps.

BASEBALL: As a first baseman and captain of his baseball team at Yale University, Bush played in the first-ever College World Series in 1947. His team lost to the University of California. Yale again reached the College World Series finals in 1948 and this time lost to Southern California. Sparky Anderson, who would win the World Series as manager of the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers, was a batboy on the Southern Cal team.

OIL: Bush learned the oil industry in West Texas, starting in 1948 as an equipment clerk for an oilfield services company. He drove from New England to Texas in a 1947 Studebaker and ordered his first chicken fried steak - a Texas staple - at a restaurant in Abilene, wondering if it was chicken or steak but trying to fit in. The deep-fried steak smothered in gravy became a Bush favorite. A restored 1947 Studebaker identical to the one he owned is on display at his presidential museum at Texas A&M University.

GULF WAR: The signature event of Bush’s presidency was the 1991 Gulf War. But when he ordered U.S. troops to Kuwait, he acknowledged, he was prepared for the worst. ‘We feared it would go badly,’ he told The Associated Press in 2011, on the 20th anniversary of Operation Desert Storm. ‘But it went far more clean ... far more quickly, far less loss of our lives and Iraqi lives, than we worried about. It was very rewarding.’

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Bush said he wrote one letter-to-the-editor as president, and it went to The New York Times regarding a story about him being out of touch because he didn’t know about grocery store price-scanning devices. ‘I was - I thought - smeared by an ugly story,’ he said in a 1999 C-SPAN interview. Bush said his remark describing the device as ‘amazing’ came at a convention showing off the new technology and was portrayed by ‘some lazy little reporter ... (who) wasn’t even there. ... And the damn story lived on.’

HORSESHOES: During his White House years, Bush annually held two horseshoe tournaments with teams made up of everyone who worked there, including groundskeepers, pilots, cooks and gardeners. ‘One of the best things we did,’ he recalled during a 2000 interview with Time magazine. He headed the ranking committee, making himself and son Marvin the top seeds. The horseshoe pits were by the southwest gate on the White House grounds, and the sounds of clanging horseshoes could be heard daily as workers practiced ahead of the tournaments.

FINAL RESTING PLACE: After suffering an irregular heartbeat in 2000, he told reporters as he was released from a Florida hospital that mortality was something he thought about ‘but not with fear. If you’ve got faith, you don’t think of it with fear.’ His burial site, behind his presidential museum in College Station, Texas, is near a pond and across a footbridge over a creek where three large post oaks form a semicircle. ‘The loveliest resting spot I have ever seen,’ Barbara Bush once described it. Their daughter, Robin, who died of leukemia at age 3 in 1953, was moved to the site in 2000, and Barbara Bush was buried there in April 2018.

 Source: Associated Press

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https://hienalouca.com/2018/12/01/wheelchair-bound-george-hw-bush-never-let-disease-slow-him-down-in-later-stages-of-his-life/
Main photo article Well after George Herbert Walker Bush left the White House, he showed that age was just a number and that his spirit was as youthful as ever.
The 41st President, who passed away late Friday night, skydived on his 80th, 85th, and 90th birthdays.
In 2013, he shaved his head to show his support for...

It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.

Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.

Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca





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