Jenna Bush Hager got emotional on Thursday’s edition of “Today” when she recalled the sweet advice given to her by her grandfather, former president George H.W. Bush.
“My grandpa, who lived until he was 94, I’ll never forget. Well, first of all, he had this little list of rules that he lived by and they’re all really good ones, like, ‘Don’t talk all the time. Listen to your mentors and friends and learn from them,’” she told Hoda Kotb, who laughed.
She shared the entire list, which includes such wisdom as “Don’t blame others for your setbacks” and “Don’t brag about yourself. Let others point out your virtues, your strong points.”
“I actually have them memorized, which is kind of weird,” she admitted.
“And, ‘Nobody likes an overbearing big shot,’ which sounds so much like his words. And, ‘Help a friend when they’re hurting.’ One of them, which I obviously listen to a lot, is, ‘It’s okay to cry when life takes a bad turn or when a friend hurts,’” she said while getting choked up.
There was one piece of advice, however, that led her to tear up on the air.
“And so he had this list of rules, but I’ll remember we were sitting in Maine one night around the dinner table and it was the last summer of his life,” she said.
“And he looked at me and he couldn’t hear very well and so he wasn’t as much part of the conversation and he loved conversations. He loved conversations where there were agreements, where there were disagreements, with friends, with political ‘enemies’ who became friends and he leaned over to me and he could barely speak and he said, ‘Don’t forget to enjoy the game.’”
The words’ meaning was devastating for Jenna.
“And it broke my heart into a thousand pieces because what he meant is life is meant to be enjoyed, celebrate it,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes. “I think he also probably felt by that point he wasn’t in it as much.”
