For Americans, the first couple were Bush Sr. and his wife Barbara. Because they have been married for 73 years, they have truly achieved a lifetime and a couple.
When Barbara died, Bush Sr. attended his wife's funeral in a wheelchair, and when he saw his wife's coffin buried in the cemetery, he burst into tears and stayed in front of the tomb for 15 minutes before reluctantly leaving.
Just over 7 months later, Bush Sr. also went to heaven to pursue Barbara.
Yes, for most people, bush and Barbara's marriage is exemplary, their love spans more than half a century, in the eyes of many people, this is a husband and wife relationship that cannot be surpassed.
However, Zhang Ailing once said a sentence: Life is a gorgeous robe, which is full of lice.
Love is even more so, no matter how beautiful love can not escape the erosion of time, behind it there will be more or less an indescribable ugliness.
The same is true of the love between Bush and Barbara, and in their marriage of more than seventy years, they have also experienced a stage of life and death, and they are tired of each other.
Page, the name of an American biographer, has nothing to do with cartoons.
In his book, "The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Birth of an American Dynasty," he cruelly unveiled the inside of Barbara's gorgeous marriage and let people see the past of crawling lice.
Barbara was only 16 years old when she met The Elder Bush, it was a bright and pure age, and the Elder Bush was only 17 years old, and he looked at Barbara at the ball with emotional eyes, and could not help but ask such a young and amorous praise: "Who is that fairy girl?" ”
The year was 1941, and under the introduction of a friend, the elder Bush and Barbara met, and Barbara once recalled the acquaintance: "He (the elder Bush) was so handsome that I could hardly breathe. ”
Such two young people who admired each other, as soon as they talked, they could no longer be separated, so they soon fell in love at the same time.
A year later, Barbara and Bush were engaged, and the guns of World War II ignited, and Bush embarked on a military career as a bomber pilot in the U.S. Navy's torpedo squadron.
Three years later, the elder Bush returned to Barbara with his military exploits, and the two people who missed each other soon got married, this year when Barbara was only 19 years old.
She once described the wedding in her memoirs this way: "I married the man I kissed for the first time, and when my children are old, I will tell them." ”
In fact, in order to support her husband's career, Barbara dropped out of Smith College early and thus became a full-time housewife to assist Bush Sr.
At that time, the elder Bush once asked Barbara: "You are so young, you gave up your studies for me, will you not regret it?" ”
Barbara told Bush Sr. affectionately: "I love you, you trust you, so I am willing to bet my life." ”
In fact, Barbara's love-only female thinking represents the choices of most women in many cases, but she did not expect that after 30 years of struggling with her husband, the man who made her trust and made her willing to give everything was fascinated by other women.
In 1973, Bush Sr. developed a passionate affair with his assistant, Jennifer Fitzgerald.
A source once told Page: "When Bush Sr. first met Fitzgerald, he was simply fascinated. ”
It is true that Fitzgerald is not tall, but has standard blonde hair and blue eyes, and is 7 years younger than Barbara. This made the elder Bush irrepressible and deeply infatuated with this diminutive female assistant.
In fact, Barbara later learned the truth about this, so she was sad and miserable, and she was also very broken.
From the data, Fitzgerald held relevant positions in 1973 and 1974, and as bush's personal assistant, he has been following bush.
However, according to the information, Fitzgerald is a divorced single woman, and bush does not care at all.
He was very careful to protect Fitzgerald, even in order to maintain a loyal love for her, thus creating a huge gap with his wife Barbara.
It wasn't until 1975 that Bush had become the head of the CIA, but he had no intention of letting go.
Barbara washed her face with tears almost every day during this time, and she communicated with Bush Sr. many times: because of his extramarital affair, she felt a great inner emptiness and pain.
However, to no avail, Bush Sr. avoided this except perfunctory, and he had no way to leave his female assistant.
For a time, Barbara suffered from severe depression.
In fact, Barbara's emotions have been stimulated before, that is, after the death of her daughter Robin, her whole body has a psychological stimulus. But at that time, she was still accompanied by her husband, and this time she was completely lonely.
Page said:
"The pain and loneliness overwhelmed her (Barbara), and she wanted to cut herself off... She would park her car on the side of the road until she wanted to hit a tree or drive into a windward car. ”
Barbara, who was in such a painful situation, did not give up the marriage, because she deeply loved Bush Sr., and she finally chose to endure for this man, for this family, and her children.
This endurance was more than a decade, and the elder Bush became the director of the CIA, became the vice president of the United States, and finally became the president.
Along the way, Barbara has shown herself as a happy, happy housewife. Bush, motivated by his quest for the presidency, finally returned to his family after 12 years.
By this time Barbara had re-emerged from the marriage state of "three people", she knew her identity, she knew what she meant by every move.
Almost with her strong hidden endurance, Barbara reaped the final victory of her life, allowing the elder Bush to "love" her again with an apologetic psychology.
It is said that the elderly Bush's love for Barbara was everywhere, and even wrote love letters to her after becoming president.
Bush Sr. wrote to his wife this way when he had been married to Barbara for 49 years:
"Dear Barbara, will you marry me?" Oh, I forgot, we got married 49 years ago. I was very happy that day in 1945, but today I am even happier than then... I'm at the top of the world, but I still don't think I deserve you! ”
When the two were married for 70 years, bush sr. wrote a love letter to Barbara like this:
"70 years ago today, Barbara Pierce of Rye, New York, made me the happiest and luckiest man on the planet."
Perhaps, many people think that Barbara's life is worth it, at least, she waited for the return of her husband, waited for the happy end of her life.
However, no matter how beautiful love is, how serious the hurt is, in Barbara's happy and smiling inner world, this past cannot be looked back.
I believe that when you understand the inside story of such a perfect marriage, many people will look at the word love again, because its existence never represents consummation.