Pictured above, Nancy and Ronald Reagan smile for a portrait that would become iconic for several reasons. First, it would serve as just a small snapshot from a remarkable love story, 52 years in the making. Next, it would serve as a uniquely American photo, a picturesque reflection of the sugarcoated '50s and early '60s. Ronald maintains one hand on the steering wheel aboard a boat somewhere in California; the other rests on the back of his wife. Behind them, the American flag is ruffled, along with their hair, in the wind. The former president’s tanned skin carries with it the marks of years’ worth of work and laughter. Nancy, always the epitome of grace, looks as delicate as fine china. The pink bow on her blouse perfectly matches his polo, a detail that happened often. They would complement each other, and further complete each other.
Before she was First Lady, Nancy Davis was a Hollywood actress, starring in films such as “The Next Voice You Hear…” and “Night Into Morning.” In 1952, she would meet and eventually marry Ronald Reagan, then the president of the Screen Actors Guild. What started out as a blind date turned into a modern day “Romeo and Juliet,” minus the tragedy. Initially, Ronald, being a well-established actor himself, traveled often for work. He began writing Nancy love letters, which he continued to do through the next half-century they shared together.
Six years after her husband was diagnosed in Alzheimer’s in 1994, Nancy published "I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan." In it, he writes that his life hadn’t truly begun until he met her. In a letter written on their eighth wedding anniversary, “Thanks to you, I’m just eight years old today.” On their 11th celebration, "I wonder how I lived at all for all the three hundred-and-sixty-fives before I met you."
The two were a pair made in heaven, if there ever was one. They traveled the world together, captivating minds and hearts, if not with their political messages, then with the way they lived. Their eight years spent in the White House almost pale in comparison with the years they spent riding horses down Santa Monica Beach, dancing at grand dinners for foreign leaders or laughing with Frank Sinatra.
It is now with heavy hearts that the world bid adieu to the remaining half of a whole this week. On March 6, Nancy Reagan passed away at age 94, almost 12 years after her husband’s death. As I write this on Friday, Nancy’s funeral is already underway at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, facing the Pacific Ocean. She will be finally placed next to her husband, with whom she longed to be reunited.
I think we can all learn a thing or two from the former First Couple. In this age, in which everyone wants to be made of steel, there is daring in just being human. How hard it is to wear your heart on your sleeve, but how beautiful — even legendary — it can be. Nancy and Ronald embodied devotion, a necessary concept that is so often ignored. Do we show devotion to our friends, to our families, to each other? Nobody wants to get hurt; nobody wants to get screwed over in the end, and I get that. But we owe it to ourselves to let people in. We owe ourselves the chance for these beautiful stories, these once-in-a-lifetime, over-the-moon, only-happens-in-movies kind of love.
