Jenna Bush Hager marked the one-year anniversary of her grandmother’s passing with a tribute to the former first lady on Instagram.
“Missing you Ganny today and everyday,” Jenna posted in the caption to a photograph of Barbara Bush. “One year without our enforcer—hard believe. You made us better and we love you more than tongue can tell.”
Barbara Bush passed away April 17, 2018, after struggling for years with congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The wife of President George H.W. Bush and the mother of Jenna’s father, President George W. Bush, was 92 when she died.
Her husband died seven months later.
Jenna said she hadn't realized a year had passed since her grandmother's death until her father and aunt pointed out the milestone to her.
“So I woke up thinking of her this morning,” she said Wednesday while co-anchoring TODAY with Hoda & Jenna.
“I just am so proud to have had a grandmother who lived fearlessly. Her life wasn’t always easy, but she raised us to be better,” Jenna said. “Even now, when I’m about to do something impulsive, I think, ‘Would my grandmother like that?’ And usually if the answer’s no, I hold back.”
Savannah Guthrie, who filled in as fourth-hour co-anchor for Hoda Kotb, who’s on maternity leave after adopting a second child, told Jenna that’s the best way to honor her grandmother.
“That’s how she lives on. She’s in your heart, and she’s in your moral compass,” she said.
Jenna has spoken often about how everyone in her family called her grandmother “the enforcer” because of her sharp tongue and habit for keeping everyone in line.
“She was such a force,” she recalled.
“She made us all better,” she added. “Ganny, if you’re watching, I love you.”
