Jenna Bush Hager paid a heart-stirring tribute to Barbara Bush on Thursday, calling her late grandmother "our family's rock, the glue that held us together."
Jenna, a correspondent for "Today," saluted her Bush family matriarch, who died Tuesday at the age of 92, by reading a letter she wrote addressed to her beloved "Ganny."
'Dearest Ganny, when we lost you, we lost one of the greats. You were our family's rock, the glue that held us together. I hope you know in your final days how many people prayed for you. How many people told me they loved you. It was like that my whole life," said Jenna, 36.
'People stopped me everywhere — in airports, on the street — and declared their love for you. It always felt good. We didn't mind sharing you with the world. We called you the enforcer.’ It was because you were a force and you wrote the rules.
"Your rules were simple: treat everyone equally. Don't look down on anyone. Use your voices for good. Read all the great books. Oh, how I'll miss sharing books with you."
Jenna recalled the time when her father George W. Bush was president and she and her twin sister Barbara, both 7, sneaked into the White House bowling alley and ordered "presidential peanut butter sandwiches."
"We couldn't wait for someone to deliver what was sure to be the fanciest sandwich of our lives. Then, you opened the door, scolding us, telling us under no circumstances could we order food in the White House again. This was not a hotel. You taught us humility and grace," Jenna wrote.
In the letter, she also says her grandmother and grandfather, George H.W. Bush, inspired the relationship between her and her own husband, Henry Chase Hager, 39.
'You and Gampy embodied unconditional love. At our wedding, Henry and I asked you to read because we so hoped we could emulate your love story. Your love letters will be passed down to my girls so they know what true devotion looks like," she said.
Jenna also remembered the times she spent with her grandmother at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.
"Our nights spent around the dinner table in Maine laughing at old family stories were made all the better because of your laugh. And humor was necessary, because of summers you spent surrounded by 17 raucous grandkids in Kennebunkport," she said.
"Grandkids who filled the hot tub with soap, creating a giant bubble bath. Rowdy kids who loved doing cannonballs over your head while you peacefully swam laps. From you, Ganny, I learned the gifts of uniqueness and authenticity, from wearing mismatched Keds to your signature pearls and snow-white hair.
"You taught us that humor, wit and grace were the best accessories and that worrying too much about your looks, in your own words, is boring. Words matter. Kindness matters. Looks fade."
Jenna recalled one of the final emails her grandmother sent her.
"The subject line read: You.’ In the body of the email you wrote: ‘I am watching you. I love you. Ganny.’ Well, Ganny, we have spent our lives watching you. Your words inspired us. Your actions—an example to follow," Jenna said.
"We watched as you held babies living with HIV to dispel the stigma, as you championed literacy across our country, as you held Gampy's hand. You always said that you were one of the luckiest women to ever live, but Gans, I am filled with gratitude because you were ours. We are the lucky ones."
Jenna concluded with a reference to Robin Bush, the three-year-old daughter Barbara Bush lost to leukemia in 1953.
"You did things on your own terms, up until the very end, and now you're reunited with your little girl Robin. She died so young. You called her your sweet angel in heaven, and though I never met her, her words are still today and forever will be a treasured part of our family. And so, Ganny, we love you more than tongue can tell."
Mrs. Bush died at her home in Houston after declining further medical treatment for several ailments including congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Jenna told her "Today" colleagues Jenna's Today colleagues Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie that the extended Bush family is coping in the wake of Mrs. Bush’s passing.
"We're doing well I think. It's a mixture of waves of great gratitude for a life well-lived — I mean, she lived the best life. And also for the tributes that are pouring in and for the people that care. It's really remarkable. And then, of course, pangs of sadness because she will be so dearly missed," Jenna said on the NBC program.
She added that her grandfather, the 93-year-old former president, misses his wife "fiercely."
"But because he loves so fiercely, I think in his own way in his old age, he's trying to be the one that makes the jokes because he doesn't want us to worry about him. And I think that just shows his type of humility and his integrity. We love him so much," she said.
'People sometimes don't think of my grandmother as such a modern woman, but I was with my grandparents when I was offered the job at the ‘Today’ show, and they're the ones that talked me into doing it. They said, ‘Go do this. Take a risk. It will be awesome.’’’
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