Friends at the top: Elaine Dobbin remembers Barbara Bush as 'gem of a lady'
Even the president of the United States had to put his towels away in Barbara Bush's house, says the former first lady's longtime Newfoundland friend Elaine Dobbin.
Barbara Bush, the wife of former United States president George Bush, died Tuesday night at age 92.
She was a good friend of philantropist Elaine Dobbin and her husband, businessman Craig Dobbin.
The two women met in September of 2001, when the Dobbins stayed at the Bush's summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
There, Bush would hang notes on the back of each guest's door, instructing them to place their used towels in a laundry basket, Dobbin said.
Those notes began with a particular call-out: "This is to all the Bush children, including you, Mr. President #43," said Dobbin, laughing.
"Barbara is one of those people you fall in love with immediately, she makes you feel very relaxed and very comfortable," she said.
"When she invites you into her home, it's your home."
Fishing with the president
Craig Dobbin and George Bush first met in Newfoundland, in 1998, said Elaine Dobbin. Brian Mulroney, who was prime minister at the time, contacted Craig Dobbin and asked if he'd consider inviting George Bush on a fishing trip.
That began a tradition of annual trips for the two men, both on the island and in Labrador.
Barbara Bush was "not much of a fisherperson," and preferred to stay in Kennebunkport, Elaine Dobbin said.
"It was Barbara's favourite place on the face of the Earth," she said.
"To quote her, you would need a crane to hoist her out of Kennebunkport."
Dobbin said she and her husband visited the Bushes there every September.
"It was a time we always looked forward to."
A legacy of promoting literacy
Bush was known for her work promoting literacy, spurred by her son Neil's diagnosis of dyslexia.
"She just made up her mind there and then that everybody needed and [should be] given the right to learn to read properly," Dobbin said.
Dobbin, who helped spearhead a campaign to build a resource centre for children with autism, said she once attended a function Bush hosted for literacy in Naples, Fla.
"It was amazing to see the turnout that came to hear her speak," she said.
George Bush, then the president, and his son, Jeb Bush, spoke at the event as well, Dobbin said.
"She spoke better than all of them."
'A very sad, great loss'
Dobbin said she last saw Barbara Bush in September of 2016.
"She was on oxygen — she would not go out in public with oxygen — so, I knew then she was on the decline, but I did not think for a second that she'd go before President Bush.
"I can't imagine what he's feeling right now."
Bush was in hospice care at the family home in Houston two days before she died, Dobbin said.
"It's very sad, a great loss," she said. "I know the whole family are at a loss."
"It's sad to see such a wonderful, great, vivacious lady just go quickly."
