No matter what your pads are daytoday politically, we come together at a moment like this and this is a nice vision for us all it seems to me. I was so touched by that and actually just before you saw some people walking in and it was trisha, nixon cox. Richard nixon, one of his two daughters, two daughters of Linden Johnson and caroline kennedy. This goes back. And representatives since then. Its the most exclusive club in the world but also the president s familys club and whether its president s or first ladies or children of president s, its a very exclusive club and theyre all obviously paying tribute togeth togeth together. Thats a mount rushmother of great ladies. The Funeral Service was scheduled to begin 4 seconds ago. My guess is theyre going to be directly on time. One thing covering different administrations on time. I can remember being on clinton standard time which meant you were 25 minutes behind. In one was always on time and is today saying goodbye to nancy reagan. I am the resurrection and the life said the lord. He that bebelieve in me yet shall he live and who so ever live and believe in me shall never die. I know that my redeemer live and he sthal stand the ladder day upon the earth and though this body be destroyed yet shall i see god whom i shall see for myself and whom i shall behold and not as a stranger. For none of us live to himself and no man die to himself. For if we live we live unto the lord and if we die we die into the lord. Whether we live there for or die, we are the lords. Blessed are the dead who die in the lord. Even so sets the spirit for they rest for their labors. Glory glory halleluiah glory glory halleluiah glory glory halleluiah the lord be with you. Let us pray. Oh god whose mercies cannot be numbered accept our prayers and grant her an entrance into the land of light and joy and the fellowship of thy saints through jesus christ thy son our lord who live in the holy spirit one god now and forever. Amen. A read frg the book of proverbs. When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls. Her husband has an unfailing prize. She brings him good and not evil all the days of her life. She obtains wool and flax and makes cloth with skillful hands. Like merchants ships she secures her provisions from afar. She rises while it is still night and distributes food to her households. She picks out a field to purchase out of her earnings. She plants a vineyard. She is about with strength and sturdy are her arms. She enjoys the successes of her dealings. At night, her lamp is undemed. She puts her hand to the disstaffed and her fingers fly. She reaches out her hands to the poor and extends her arms to the needy. She fears not the snow for her house hold, all her charges with doubly clothed. She makes her own coverlets. Fine linen and purple are her clothing. Her husband is at the city gates. She makes garments and sales them and stocks the merchants with belt. Shes clothed with strength and dignity and laughs at the days to come. She opens her mouth in business come and on her tongue is kindly counsel. She watches the conduct of her household and eats not her food in idolness. Her children rise up and praise her. Her husband too extails her. Many are the women of proven worth but you have excelled them all. Charm is sus septemberive and beauty fleeting. The woman who fears the lord is to be praised. Give her a reward of her labors and let her works praise her at the city gates. The word of the lord. In the spring of 1987 president reagan and i were driven into a large hanger at the airport to await the arrival of mrs. Reagan and my wife mila prior to departure ceremonies for their return to washington following their highly successful state visit to canada. President reagan and i were alone except for the security details. When their car drove in a moment later out stepped nancy and mila looking like a million bucks and as they headed towards us president reagan beamed and through his arm around my shoulder and he said with a grin, you know, brian, for two iri irishmen we sure married up. I mention this again because it reflects a unique reagan reality. She really always was on his mind. We all know of his great love for nancy and the manner in which he expressed it. One day at the white house after another absolutely blowing tribute to nancy reagan. I said privately you know ron, youre going to get me and all the rest of us here in a whole lot of trouble with ill wives because we cant keep up with you. And the president chuckled and looked at me with the irish well, brian, thats your problem, not mine. To illustrate is absolutely unique. Partnership and relationship, let me share with you today a letter he wrote to nancy on their first christmas together in the white house. On december 25, 1981. There are several much beloved women in my life and on christmas i should be giving them love and precious stones and perfume and firs and lace. I know that even the best of these would fall short of expressing how much these several women mean to me and how empty my life would be without them. There is, of course, my first lady. She brings so much grace and charm to whatever she does. Even formal function sparkle and turn into fun times. Everything is done with class. Theres another woman in my life who does things i dont always get to see but i hear about them and sometimes see photos of them doing them. She takes an abandoned child in her arms and the look on her face only the madonna could match. The look on the childs face is one of that and i know because i adore her too. She bends over a wheelchair or bed to touch with tenderness and compassion just as she fills by entire life with warmth and love. Theres another gal i love whose a next builder. If she were stuck for three days in a hotel room she would manage to make it home sweet home. She moves things around, looks at it, straightens this, straightens that. Do y. You wonder why it wasnt like that in the first place. Im also crazy about the girl who goes to the ranch with me. Shes a peewee power house at pushing over dead trees. Shes a wonderful person to sit by the fire with or to ride with or just to be with when the sun goes down and the stars come out. If ever she stopped going to the ranch, i would stop too because i would see her in every spot there is and i couldnt stand that. Then theres a sent mental lady i love whose eyes fill up so easily. Her laugh is like ting ling bel bells. I hear those bells and i feel good all over even if i tell a joke shes heard many, many times before. Fortunately, all these women in my life are you. Fortunately, for me, that is, for there could be no life for me without you. Browning asked, how do i love thee . Let me count the ways. For me, theres no way to count. I love the whole gang of you. Mommy, first lady, the sent mental you, the fun you and the peewee power house you. Merry christmas to all with all my love, lucky me. Theirs was a love story for the ages. As first couple, ron and nancy reagan represented america with great distinction. They had a magnificent sense of location. They had style. They had grace. They had class. Some of you may have heard my efforts when talking in other circumstances to what the reagans meant to us all. Today, those same golden words tumble across continents and down the virsta of the years. As we think of nancy reunited finally with her beloved ronny. Yates wrote think where mans glory most begins and ends and say my glory was that i had such friends. We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep so you may not breathe like the rest who have no hope. For if we believe jesus died and rose, so to will god through jesus bring with him those who have fallen asleep. Indeed, we tell you this on the word of the lord that we who are alive who are left until the coming of the loord will surely not proceed those who have fallen asleep. For the lord himself with the word of command and the voice of an ark angel will come down from heaven and the dead in christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the lord. Therefore, console one another with these words. The word of the lord. Thanks be to god. Thank you so much. Its an honor and im so grateful to be included today and ive been asked to say just a few words before i read a passage from the new testament for mrs. Reagan. You may want to sit down. 15 years ago i interviewed her. It was long after the white house years and i didnt really know her then put our conversation was about the president and alzheimers and how you go on whenever single day as someone said the size of the love is the size of the loss and when the interview was over we kept talking and i think i joined so many of you here in this room who checked in by phone and came to los angeles to have the lunches with her. Those lunches in which she ate microscopic amounts of food, tiny little chopped salads and one Chocolate Chip Cookie and the iced tea and i was so terrified of that that i use to hide my roll under the table and butter it so she couldnt see it. I didnt want to offend her. Make no mistake. She would bok journalist. I mean bok any journalist in this room if she didnt like a report done. Unlike so many people these days, she never seemed to harden differences into definitions. She was way too interested in people and who you really were and what you really knew all of us woven together in this life. So we talked about politics and celebrities and she told very wicked stories about old hollywood and the days when life would throw you a curve and you got up and put on your lipstick and combed your hair and kept the band playing. I always thought of that old desert movie morocco describing a generation of women. It says theres no foreign legion just for women. Theres a foreign legion for women too. They have no flag, no medals and they were brave. As the lunch would end she would make her way up to the hill to the house with her memories and silences and the happiness when children were coming. All this week i would think about watching her head down the hall because she would head into the bedroom. Right there, i cant remember what it was, was it a pillow or framed needle point but i know the words were clearly from president reagan. It said Something Like this. If you must leave, could you just take me with you. And i think of that again today as i read what ive been asked to read. This passage from the gospel of john. Jesus said do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in god and trust in me and my Fathers House are many rooms. If it were not so i would told you. Im going there to prepare a place for you and if i go and prepare a place for you i will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where i am. You know at that weight of the place where im going and thomas said to him lord, we dont know where youre going. How can we know the way . Jesus answered i am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. From nancy, the word of the lord. We gather here today to say goodbye to nancy davis reagan. A beautiful, smart and gracious woman. A woman who captured the heart of a man who loved his his country and his countrymen. Most especially loved this remarkable woman. A woman whom without Ronald Wilson reagan would have never become the 40th president of the United States or succeeded as well as he did. The cold war president reagan did so much to end brought them together. In 1950, the name nancy davis appeared on a list of communist sympathizer. Would the hollywood blacklisters know this was a different person and not the young actress . She took her problem to her union boss, the president of the screen actors guild, Ronald Reagan. They met at a hollywood restaurant, the dinner would be brief, said reed because each had an early casting call. In fact, neither had an early casting call. An early casting call was the standard early hollywood excuse to put a quick end to pleasant dinners. When i opened the doors, i knew he was the man i wanted to marry. Their meeting lasted through dinner and then into the wee hours at a nearby club. The third age in shakespeares man is a lover sighing like a furnace with a woolful ballard. Shak shakespeare is mocking young lovers. Their passion always burns hot, he said, and then it fades. Well, he never met nancy or ronny. They could hardly bare to be apart. When he was on a movie set or on a road for general e lek tant or as candidate or governor or as president , he wrote her every single night. When they were together he hid love notes around the house for her to find. One christmas at pacific he wrote whatever i treasure and enjoy, all would be without meaning if i didnt have you. I live in a permanent christmas because god gave me you. Nancy saved his love letters in a shopping bag in her closet. She reciprocated by slipping little notes and jelly beans in with the clothes in his suitcase. And while he was away she said i would drive home feeling very lonely and very sad and i would knit him socks. She also reciprocated by dedicating her life to him. I was, i suppose a woman of the old school, she wrote. If you want today make your life with a man, you took on whatever his interest were and they became your interest too. If Ronald Reagan had owned a shoe store, mike wrote nancy would have been very happy pushing shoes and working the register. Ronald reagans interest turned a different direction to politics and public service. Nancy, who might have preferred a more private life became a consummate political wife and first lady. He woed much of the success of his presidency to her. Nancy, he wrote sees the goodness in people but she also has an extra instinct that allows her to see the flaws. Nancy was the president s eyes and ears when it came to personnel. She knew he was paddling their own canoe and loyal to the president. She was tough as a drill marine sergeant as many of us found out when things didnt go well. The president s advisers learned to keep her inform and seek her support. If she trusted them and agreed she would add her voice to theirs. She was without a doubt absolutely without a doubt his closest adviser. Shes the one who said you need to do this, ronny. You need to find a way to negotiate. The only time i saw her lose her composure was the day the president was shot. She was devastated and fell apart. Even if his condition he did his best to give her strength. Honey, i forgot to duck, he said. That was his way of comforting her. President reagan left the hospital convinced that god had spared him for a special purpose. The first lady left with a fierce determination to protect him in every way that she possibly could. Ronald and nancy reagan were defined by their love for each other. They were as close to being one person as it is possible for any two people to be. When the president made his slow exit from the stage, she dedicated herself to his memory and to his place in history. Now she too has exited the stage to join her beloved ronny in eternity. I can just imagine how st. Peter had let the president know she arrived. A beautiful lady is at the gate asking for you, he said. With a jar of jelly beans beans with a suitcase filled with socks. We love you nancy. We miss you but well see you on the other side. Is is. This is a very emotional time for me. I arooirived in los angeles. I was 26yearsold and the nbc news desk said to me theres an actor running for governor of california. I dont think hes going anywhere. Youre the junior guy so you get on the bus with him. Its also pointing out the current governor. Thats before they put a lease on the office in california. So i did. And it was such an instructive beginning for me as a Political Correspondent because i saw the best run campaign i had ever seen up to that point and sense. By the time the governor got ready to run for a second term i knew my way around a little bit. I went where he was going to make his anoupsment and walked into the holding room early and took a seat in the far corner. A realized it was kind of reserved for the reagan supporters and Family Friends because they began to line the walls including jimmy and gloria stewart. Nancy came in and she was on autopilot and made her way around the wall of friends and suppo supporters. It dawned on me she was going to get to me. Now, im the outlier at that point. Im a reporter from the press. She got to me and she leaned back in my car and i quickly said oh mrs. Reagan, whatever it is i have, its not catching, i can promise you that. She laughed and leaned over and gave me a kiss and that was the beginning of a remarkable friendship between the first lady and a reporter. It was also a time i began to appreciate how much she meant to the president of the United States. Not just as his wife but as a political adviser. She could be as we all saw in the photographs and video of the adoring wife in public. Behind the scenes she was an analyst and keeper of the flames. We stayed in close touch. It wasnt always easy. Shortly after his ig august ration as president i made some Public Comments about his early years in which i said i thought the poor boy narrative was somewhat overblown. After all, he had been a successful broadcaster in his 20s and a movie star under contract before he was 30. Nancy was furious and the word came from jim baker and others stay clear of the white house for a while. Well let you know when its safe to go back. About two months later merideth and i were invited to a steak dinner and i was told i would have to think was i was going to say to her. Dont say anything to the president. He doesnt care about this but nancy is still steaming. Well, merideth was very nervous as we continued to make our way toward her in the receiving line because i had not yet come up to anything to say to her. Finally, i stood before her and saw in her eyes that glaze she could have for people who didnt please her. I spontaneously said nancy, back to square one. She looked at me for a moment, broke out laughing and said tom, back to square one. The next day a white house photograph arrived with the skripgs tom, back to square one. That was such a telling moment about how she was as a political wife as someone who knew of our personal relationships and how to get her message across and quickly move on. We all saw those other moments when she was utterly in command. Jim has referred to that awful day when the president was shot. They didnt know what his condition was. When the secret service told her theres been a shooting and the president was rushed to the hospital she said i must go and they said thats not a good idea. She said quickly to them get me a car right now or ill walk to the hospital. The president and i shared a birthday. February 6th. It became an occasion to share phone calls and notes between mrs. Reagan and me. When the president was going through his ordeal after leaving the white house, our calls became more regular. I could he