We talked to her recently. She talked about that day. I like to have you talk about how she responded to that and how it redefine what is her years of first lady would be. Watch. I was on my way to capitol hill to brief the Senate Education committee on Early Childhood education. I hosted a summit on Early Childhood education that summer. I was going to brief that committee on Early Childhood education when i was getting in the car. My secret Service Agent said a plane flown into the world trade center. We assumed that it was just some strange accident. We knew the second plane had hit. How did you leave . The secret service came to get me and said its time to at first they were thinking that would take me back to the white house. They had to regroup and figure out where i should go. Womenner concluding off their high hills running from the white house. I know they were expected to have interesting jobs at the white house but in one thought they would have to run from the white house. Lot of them had been reinforced. Thats where i went. Spent the day. Had you talked to your husband or girl at that point . I cant remember. I had the logs from the day to remember. I wanted my mother to say everything will be all right. I called her and said, everything is going to be all right. I wanted to say, certainly it is. How did she respond . How did she redefine her role after that day . I was with her that day because i was covering her as first lady for the washington post. There was some confusion whether anyone with hear her. She and senator kennedy made a brief statement to the press over there. I can remember looking at her. Its always she twist her fingers at her side when shes struggling with something that was pretty dramatic. I remember thinking, she is wise enough. Her motherinlaw was in in white house. She said in that moment what really she came to say over and over again. We have to make sure we tell children that we love them and we will get through this. Spontaneous and sincere. Things were different immediately. Laura bush wrote a letter to the children of america a day after 9 11. I want you to know how much i care about all of you. This is a personal message. Be kind to each other. Take care of each other and show your love for each other. As Mark Updegrove as a nation we have not experienced anything on this level since the attack on pearl harbor. What do americans want from the white house and president and first lady if the time of extreme National Crisis . There are many moments when we have in place the rights person for the right moment. I think she was the right first lady for that moment. I forget now, i wouldnt know what to do. We didnt know how to ring a how to react to it. She said, comfort your children. Reach out to your kids. Your kids want you now and they need you now. I think that helped us to get through that very trying moment. She served texas. Theres a strength that emanates from her. We benefitedded from having her in the white house during that rot. Texan connection is where we g go next as we learn more about her life. Both bushes say that to know them you must know midland texas. Where was laura welsh born and it will us about her Early Childhood . Midland texas is west texas. It is the place you can see it from miles away. Its very wide and very flat and very much big sky. Her failure was a father was a biller. Her mother came from texas Strong Female stock. Her mother had managed dairy farm when her grandfather was away. I think it was very much a place of who she was. Gave her a sense of strength about the land and the prairie and doing for yourself. I can remember when i went there, people talked about crying. They cried in front of barbara bush. As she moved from western pennsylvania having been educated. Her husband came back and said well move out there and make our fortune in oil. He said, theres a town nearby called no trees. Her friend says said, she was coming home from super market and there was a tumbleweed in front of her door. You have to have a special appreciation. I think it made her tough. In her book, her book have a love letter of midland, texas. Its so much a part of her. She talked about the sky and how her mother and she used to look up at the sky and how important that is to that part of the country. You sort of see people for who they are and there are no trees midland you right. In the 1950s was supportive but it also could be insulating. How did that shape her . Shes an only child. That was insulating in a way. Theres a lonely existence. There werent a lot of folks who came in from the outside. People had their own ways of being and their own divide as to where you were in the social stratosphere. You raised hell in odessa and you raised kids in midland. There was a certain way of behaving. People also depended on each other. Midland today have the largest hispanic population. What was it like in terms of minorities when laura welsh was growing up . I cant really speak exactly how it was then. There was three different high schools. They all got together for a reunion when the bushes were in the white house, nobody really remembered about the high school. I dont think that it was a matter of overt separation as much as within a certain class of people. I know when i went back there to do reporting, i say i will go across town to do an interview. They say what are you going over that part of town for . I think that people kept to their own lanes. When she went off to smu she had said her friends didnt have a remembrance of Martin Luther king and the race riots. There was a sock hop and a soda. In that way it was isolating. Her mother was born in 1999 and still very much alive. Right after the age of turning 17, laura welsh information a car crash in midland, texas. It was older than the death of a very close friend. She spoke about that. She wrote about it in her book. Lets listen. Mrs. Bush you write and spoken from the heart about a difficult period november 1963 and a loss of faith. Why . I was in a car wreck. I wrote about it extensively in my book. The whole time i was in the hospital, not injured. I had a cut on my leg and broken ankle. I was praying that the other person in the car would be okay. The other person in the car was one of my best friends. Which i didnt know. I didnt really recognize that at the site of the crash. His father came up. His father had been they lived which is past where the car wreck was. I recognized his father but i didnt understand mike was there. I prayed over and over for him to be okay. He wasnt. I thought, well nobody listen. God is listening. My prayer wasnt answered. I wept through a very long time of not believing. Not believing that prayers could be answered. It took me a long time and a lot of growing up to come back to faith. The car wreck shaped her in what way . What she had said about it and what she mentioned to me about it was that if you grow up and when youre young and youre expect that the world will be a certain way, she would have obtained that maturity, it came to her pretty quickly. I think that she is an empathetic person by nature. I think probably made it less judgmental about other people. I think that certainly made her the kind of person. She worries about her daughter and her husband. She seen at a early and how it could change everything. She talk about her faith. You have to move on. You have to be strong. You have to move on. I think its very helpful. I think faith plays a great role in both of their lives. I think george w. Bush became a born again christian in midland. It changed his life in a lot of ways. She has left she is vocal about her religious faith than he is. He is a little bit more low key about it. She is the second first lady to have a post graduate degree. Tell us whats important to know about her education and her early job . I think people frequently overlook that. They make the mistake of thinking that she is a conventional woman. Which she is not at all. She certainly was very selfdirected and came back from smu and teaching and said she wanted to go on to the university of texas and get her library in science degree. To go on and get her masters degree. I think thats a part thats important she maintains to this day. I can tell you how can be involved in program. We have a robust conversation going on on facebook. Youll see the picture of laura bush and join the conversation there. You can tweet us using the twitter handler first ladies. Well mix as many tweets as we can. You can call us. Question from twitter. She ask i have a question about laura bush, was she always a republican . Im not a fan of the muffets. I think she was a democrat for many years. See married into a republican family. And loved her husband and has great faith in him and his judgment. I think supported his platform. She is not a natural republican. Before we leave, set of relationships that has carried her through her entire life. A group of girlfriends she made in midland. How important are they to her . What do they provide to her and she to them . She and the president have a very strong set of friends who have been their friends forever. That has been a really sustaining aspect to them. You come to washington, its best to support your friends. They have been with you from the beginning. You know they are mostly progress democrats these group of girlfriends. What clues does that give to us thats interesting. I think she loved her husband. Shes loyal to her husband. One of the things that i have come to admire and appreciate about laura bush, she has navigated this bizarre volunteer job is to find areas of commonlity with people she might find differences. She would campaign for republicans but i saw her once change a speech in script because the person who she was campaigning for, she was not going to attack democrats. I think that she has things that are interesting to her with friends. They cared about literature and the book festival. Shes very much an avid conservationist and environmentalist. Seiz pretty active in womens shes pretty active in womens rights. Taking that reference, it kept them grounded too. Those are people who knew them well. Both of the bushes talk about the story of bringing their friends in and president bush having his pals in oval office. One of his friends says, gosh, bush, can you believe it. Im in the oval office. They looked at george. It gave them great comfort. Laura welsh and george bush were both Young Persons in midland, texas. Did know meet at children . They did not. They attended the same schools. He says she doesnt recall him. They didnt she knew who he was after a time. He was from a good family and a well known family in midland. At one point they lived in the same building in houston. Her friend from midland fixed them up. He was 30 and i guess they were about the same and. They got engaged and married quickly. Thats one thing i wanted to ask you about, this is the portrait you painted of a woman who is a librarian. Very orderly and measured. Measuring after four months. How do you describe that in the decisions to marry so quickly after she met george w. Bush . She had a do of suitors in her life. Texas at the time, you talked her feeling like an old maid. By texas standards, she probably was. Here comes this guy, george bush, who was so different from her in some respects and so complimentary. They really clicked. It was in characteristic she swept up in this romance. One thing she talks about, they went out on the campaign trail right after they got married. George Bush Campaigned unsuccessfully for a seat in congress in west texas. They gotten to know each other so well. They spent hours driving around west texas talking about their lives. I think that really helped their marriage begin on the rake right footing. They seemed so different he made her laugh. She said she wanted somebody that would make her laugh. She grew up as the only child. She didnt have a brother or a sister. Her mother had miscarriages. She really liked his nature. He wanted someone who was steady that would settle him down. I see that in him still. You can never know whats in someone elses marriage. I was struck when i saw them recently on tonight show he said something. She giggled and laugh. They still have that bond that hes funny. One of the great moments for her during her first tenures, she was at the white house for a correspondents dinner. In 25. Type2005. She took the podium in place of her husband. She said, aedes pratt housewife. They have this great rapport. Hi jane. Good evening is it true that lauras interest in afghanistan actually began in the sixth grade . I never heard that. Can you tell me more about that . In her book, i cant give you the page number, she had to write a report on a country and she and her father, mr. Welch went to the globe and her finger landed on afghanistan. She wrote that in her own book. I think she was talking about how exotic it was to write about afghanistan at that time. I do i traveled with her to europe and she toured the museum in paris. Where there are at the do of the antiquities from that country. Some of the artifacts had been saved. I think she was taken by this idea that you could have this robust civilization and then it could be blown to bits in a matter of days. Really was quite compelled by that. Certainly might have been in her roots from early on too. Thought that was a cause. He ran for congress right after they got married. We she married him, did she know she will be marrying a politician . Well, not exactly. He promised her he would never have to give a speech. She knew he was from a very political family. She described herself as not being very political. When people use that, it means that they find politics distasteful. They just dont like it. Its nasty and full of one upmanship. People didnt have much appetite for that. Gary robinson wants to know was laura into politics or thrust into it because of her relationship with george w. I think thrust. Was that campaign being successful, what was life like after that . He had to figure out what he wanted to the. He went into the oil business in midland. Thats where they were for the first ten years of their marriage. Where their daughters were born and they raised them as toddler. It was a pretty middle class position for a long time. Until he decided to do other things. Was it middle class by choice or by necessity . He came from a very healthy family. He was in the oil business. Did they choose to live more modesty . They dont have the world you have in dallas. I think he saw a strong need to make it on his own. I would defer to you because you are working on this book about the relationship between them. As you find, he didnt want to feel as if he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Midland is a bus town. He was coming if you want oil industry. It was not a very prosperous business at that time. He had Great Success as owner of the texas rangers. He always had his father to bail him out. They were not comfortable uncomfortable. They considered adaptations. What was parenthood for them and can you talk about how their children were raised . I think that she very much wanted to have children. She always knew she wanted to have children. She always imagined herself having a family. They described that both as being a very idealic team. She loved reading and raising them and very immersed in caring for them. I think that your children find a way to challenge your preconceptions what its going to be like. They had a set of twins. One who always had a guided personality more. One who has a mother and i think they delighted in that. The years they spent in austin, where they were all together, a very close town and easy town to be in, they described as being idealic. Lucy is watching us in wisconsin. Hi. Caller good evening. My question is when you were talking about lauras lack of faith after the accident. Was it something that happened that caused her to find out back in her life . Was it an influence of somebody george had billy graham, i was a little curious when she said she later came back. I wonder if there was something that drove her back to god . Thank you. I dont know. Do you know of anything that would have been cat lit cat lit tick in her life. No. The kind of modest that she projects and the privacy she shepherds means shes not really giving in the same way her husband is to talking and witnessing her faith in a public fashion. She was raised a methodist. Certainly always attended church. It was part of community life. The comfort of that, i think certainly she has talked about the comfort of scripture in a way that it part of her interest in literature. I remember her picking a bible very out after september 11th. I dont know if theres a catalyst. I wouldnt presume to speak for her in that way as to how she found her footing again. That caller mentioned billy graham. He had a troll role to play in george w. Bush to stopping drinking alcohol. You mentioned two bushes met, he was a bit of a crowder. He made that decision to give up alcohol. Im wondering if we know laura bush had a role in that decision or was that a personal life for him . He realized at a certain point. There was a conversation that george w. Bush had with billy graham in kennebunkport. He took god into his heart. I think this is laura bush is streamly supportive of all the decisions that her husband made. Including his embracing christianity. He made the decision that he wanted to make a bid for the Governors Mansion in texas. Laura bush was concerned because of the twins very young at that point. Ultimately, she agreed to support him on this. What was lauras experience like as first lady of texas. Seem like shell be embraced easily by the people there. Was she . She was. Its a low key position. She could talk about how she like ducking out the backdoor and going around the corner to the drugstore. Kind of hard to imagine with everything that happened after september 11th that somebody can live like that today. I think she had a rich life. She started the texas book festival. She very quietly had influence on him with his education initiative. Not in the sort of you will do this way. He learned about what role Early Childhood education have about environmental and early literacy. For the girls, it was a little easier for them too. They cab part of a set of well connected upper middle class kids in austin. Kind of knew each other and nobody really looked at them too harshly. As the son of a president , he certainly understood what life would be like in the white house. What the rigors campaign would be like. He decided to throw his hat in the ring for a president ial election how supportive was laura bush at that point . I think she was supportive of his intention. She was confident hed win. When he had his mindset on the state house in texas, when everyone thought he was going to lose, she knew he was going to win. He was tenacious in his drive for t