Boston Herald: Former First Lady Gave Powerful Example of Recovery
Posted 07/11/2011
“Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time.” — Longfellow
That’s just as true of great women, and Betty Ford was one of them, a towering example that all things are possible, that our past doesn’t have to be our future, too, that the Confucian adage had it right in noting our greatest glory does not lie in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Millions of Americans quietly reaffirm those truths every day of their lives, one day at a time, and Betty Ford became the power of example to them all, lending her great visibility to her great vulnerability, calling the disease of addiction by its name and admitting that, by herself, she was powerless over it.
To those who understand, including legions of anonymous mourners who’ll pay respects to her this week, this great lady, who died at 93, represented a victory that dwarfed the triumphs of her late husband, the 38th president of the United States.
Indeed, she died clean and sober, the inspiration for a healing mecca that bears her name, The Betty Ford Center, where the miracle of recovery has become a reality in the lives of multitudes who once found themselves where she was back in 1978, in the merciless clutches of drugs and booze.
Because her life was lived in the fishbowl of national politics, her private demons became publicly known, making her conquest of them all the more remarkable; it’s hard enough to rebuild a shattered life without the whole world looking on.
She put a face, her face, on a disease society would rather ignore.
In doing so, she also reminded us that it’s no respecter of persons, that no one is immune to its perils. George McGovern, the South Dakota senator who ran for president in 1972, did the same thing in sharing the heart-wrenching story of how his daughter, Terry, died from acute alcoholism.
The difference was that Betty Ford was not an observer; she was Exhibit A, the example.
There was so much more that defined and distinguished her life, including the way she again used herself to raise awareness of breast cancer, making no secret of having undergone a radical mastectomy, but cancer is no cause for shame or embarrassment because no one views it as a personal failing.
Drinking and drugging are different. In the eyes of a judgmental world they’re seen as character flaws, until someone you love opens your eyes to the insidious nature of substance abuse.
That’s what Betty Ford did to a lot of eyes that needed opening.
Now she’s gone, but as her story is shared in years to come her footprints will surely be seen on the sands of time.
Back to news articles