When the news broke that First Lady Barbara Bush had decided to seek comfort care, all the world knew it was a matter of time. Kim’s beautiful tribute highlights the all-encompassing wife, mother, and American that she was.

In 1990, the Berlin Wall had been rubble for a year, and it was evident a sea change across the world was happening. Who knew that, on that day at Wellesley, we would see the First Lady of the United States AND the First Lady of the Soviet Union sit on the same stage together?

Barbara Bush’s speech that day spoke about family, dreams, respect, kindness, and diversity.

When she spoke about being kind and influencing others for good, she started with her own family and expanded outward. So much so that we see this remembrance today.

Rest In Peace Mrs. Barbara Bush.
You were a beautiful light in this world and I am forever thankful for your friendship. pic.twitter.com/yuZvQ7o8aH

— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) April 17, 2018

The towering football player and the tiny lady – both forces to be reckoned with. Both forces for good and positive change for individuals and the community at large.

In her speech, as relevant today as then, she highlights traits and characteristics all women should emulate.

Strength in the midst of adversity

Rereading some of Richard Ben Cramer's portrait of Barbara Bush in "What It Takes." Incredibly detailed and generous. Here's from when her 3-year-old daughter Robin was sick with cancer. pic.twitter.com/7slWG6iUzB

— Aman Batheja (@amanbatheja) April 16, 2018

As Kim noted, she was there by Robin’s side every step of the way. Did it ever get easier to talk about her beloved Robin years later? No. Yet Barbara Bush kept forging on with life, surrounding her family with love, and being by her husband’s side every step of the way.

Reading opens the world to each and every person in immeasurable ways.

It was Neil’s own struggles with reading in elementary school that would mold his mother’s lifelong mission. It started when she attended reading day at her son’s school.

“So there’s a reading circle and all the kids have a book and they’re passing the book kid to kid and they passed it to me and I couldn’t read,” he said.

His mother was shocked and determined to bring his reading level up to par with his classmates. While friends were playing ball outside on Saturdays, Neil was inside attending various programs to help him learn to manage his dyslexia.

Through his struggle, Barbara Bush learned illiteracy was a well-kept secret in schools and the alarming statistics left her determined to make a change.

She started the Barbara Bush Literacy Foundation “to improve the quality of life for Houstonians of all ages through the power of literacy.”

Reading and having the ability to read is a powerful thing. Barbara Bush understood that. Which is why, I think, she used Robert Fulghum and Alice Walker in her Wellesley speech.

Alice Walker’s book has a special resonance here. At Wellesley, each class is known by a special color. For four years the Class of ’90 has worn the color purple. Today you meet on Severance Green to say goodbye to all of that, to begin a new and a very personal journey, to search for your own true colors.

I firmly believe her implication here was that we should all find our OWN true colors and not let others dictate what colors are acceptable. A woman ahead of her time, funnier than today’s liberals realize.

Robert Fulghum’s story of the little girl that says she’s a mermaid that is equally applicable today. If you don’t want to be pigeon-holed as a conservative, or a rabid one-note SJW, then chose as Barbara Bush did.

“Diversity, like anything worth having, requires effort — effort to learn about and respect difference, to be compassionate with one another, to cherish our own identity, and to accept unconditionally the same in others. [Emphasis Added]

Barbara Bush encouraged conversation and learning from all walks of life. Barbara Bush encouraged all hoop race winners to realize their OWN personal dream instead of the one that society dictates.

Barbara Bush was a wife, mother, First Lady, and an American. A woman who never let herself be labeled, a woman comfortable in her own skin. A role model ahead of the curve, pearls and all.

Thank you Barbara Bush. You will be missed but never forgotten.