Jenna Bush Hager is paying tribute to “the Bush women who came before” her in a heartfelt letter to her daughters, Mila, 5, and Poppy, 2, in honor of Mother’s Day.
The letter published in Southern Living magazine, where Jenna serves as editor-at-large, especially honors Jenna’s mother, former First Lady Laura Bush, or “Grammee” as her two granddaughters know her.
Jenna calls her mother “one of the all-time greats” and praises her for always putting Jenna and her twin sister, Barbara, first.
“I watched her ‘mother’ for many years, but it wasn’t until you were born that I really understood what motherhood meant,” Jenna writes to her own daughters. “And it wasn’t until I first held you — with Grammee by my hospital bed — that I really understood my mom.”
Jenna also describes how her mother and father, former President George W. Bush, desperately wanted children but had trouble conceiving so they filled out an application to adopt.
“The day they found out they were accepted by the adoption agency was the day they discovered she was pregnant with your Aunt Barbara and me,” Jenna writes.
Jenna goes on to recall a childhood “filled with love” with mom Laura at the helm. “After our baths every night, we danced around the house (hair wet, pajama clad) to The Pointer Sisters’ ‘Fire,’ a conga line of Bush women,” she writes. “Barbara and I following in our mama’s footsteps — we always followed her lead.”
Jenna also pays tribute to her grandmothers in the letter: her mother’s mother Jenna, for whom she was named, and her late grandmother Barbara, who died just a couple weeks ago on April 17.
I “think about my strong mama and my grandmas — the women who came before me. And I am so grateful that you are mine,” Jenna tells Mila and Poppy.