Barbara Bush in declining health, seeks only ‘comfort care’

Members of the Bush family voiced thanks for the nation’s prayers Monday following the news that former first lady Barbara Bush will not seek further treatment for unspecified health problems. “She’s a fighter. She’s an enforcer,” said Jenna Bush Hager, using the family’s nickname for her grandmother. “We’re grateful for her, for everybody’s prayers and thoughts, and just know the world is better because she is in it.” Family spokesman Jim McGrath announced Sunday that Bush, 92, had returned to her Houston home to focus on “comfort care.” He did not elaborate on her condition. “It will not surprise those who know her that Barbara Bush has been a rock in the face of her failing health, worrying not for herself—thanks to her abiding faith—but for others,” he said. Bush married George H.W. Bush on Jan. 6, 1945. They had six children and have been married longer than any presidential couple in U.S. history. She is one of only two first ladies to also be mother to a president.