>> Thank you so much for being
here. We really appreciated. And welcome to meet the press.
You wonderful to be with you. Thank you so much for having
me. So let's talk about your beautiful book, Dear Mom and
dad. This is really a letter to your parents and it comes after
you've written about your family before. Why did you want
to write this book in this way right now? Well, I wanted to tell this
part of the story for a long time, because I think making
sense of your family and processing everything and, you
know, moving beyond, you know, whatever happened in your
childhood, whatever wounds you've been carrying around all
of that stuff, it's a journey, you know, and it's and it's not
a smooth journey. And so I I really had kind of reached the
end part of that. And I reached a place where I could stand
back and look at look at my family. Look at things through
a wider lens and look with more understanding, more
forgiveness, more compassion. And so I'd wanted to tell the
story. And I actually been trying to make a documentary
called the Reagans before the world moved 10 kind of based on
that premise and that desire to tell to tell us or the finale
of this of this journey. Right. And it didn't work out very
well because every time I thought a producer would be
okay, they start trying to take it away from me and like you
go, sit over there to run. We'll tell your story for you.
Didn't want anyone else to do is very patronizing is like,
what do you know? You don't know any and so anyway. So my editor,
Bob, while called me and had this idea for this, he said a
small book and a letter to parents. I thought, Oh, my God,
I never would have thought of that format ever ever. What was it like to write this
letter to your parents and how do you think they would respond
to it if they could read it? Well, I'll ask the first part
of that. First. It was I mean, I was totally willing
to like dig deep and and be completely, you know, honest
and everything wrong. But I think doing it in this
format made it even more raw and more
and and more may be more able to dig deeper in because you
are picturing saying things to them that I never would have
said if they were in front of me, particularly to my mother,
I just never would have I would have been too scared. So it was a brilliant idea for
a format that he had. I mean, what what they say? Well, my if
my father were here, he'd be 113 years old tape. I wouldn't
see that side. I mean, I think he would. I think he would be fine with
some of it. I think he would feel sad because some of it,
you know, I mean, he didn't one of the realizations that I
came to was that as a child of an alcoholic, where would my
father had learned to be an available father? He and it
took me a while to really look at that, I think and accept
that. And where we learn conscious parenting his, you
know, his father was an alcoholic. You and by saying that you wish
you had shared more with them while they were here, which is
so powerful. Yeah, I do. I'm like I said some of
it. I never could have shared with my mother and I think I did. I did share
a lot with my father during the 10 years of his Alzheimer's.
I mean, as as on as that might sound, I got to know him better during those 10 years than I
ever did before in my life because I was willing to
because I went, OK, you know what, you got to grow up now
and you got it. Put the past away and enter into this situation
and ask what can I learn from this? You know, I mean, I've
said that to people about Alzheimer's a lot instead of
asking, why did my loved one get this disease, which there's
never an answer for? It's understandable question.
That's the wrong question. Instead, what can I learn from this?
How can I grow from this? Why was it important for you to, as you say, delve into this very personal
space to round out the other accounts of your
family in this very personal way? Well, because all the
messiness of our family has been so public partly past me. Don't buy those
other books. Haha, you know, I felt like I the
world has known a lot of the story and they should know this
part of it, too, but also in primarily because I'm not the only person who has
messiness and their family and challenges and difficulties and
fractures and all of that. And if the work that I have done on
this and the insights that I've managed to gain can help other
people. And I wanted to that in Iran, a support group that I
created beyond Alzheimer's for caregivers for 6 years. So I've
heard a lot of family stories and it really it really deepened in needs and
knowledge that we're not that different. You know, families
are messy and they're complicated. And particularly when disease
enters the picture. So if I can say to anybody else, hey, you
know what, this is what worked for me. I need to do that. I kept
thinking as I was reading your book that it is raw and deeply
personal in challenging at times but also in some ways
like a love letter. It is here pair. Yes, it is. Is that how
you saw? Yeah, it is because I I I finally learned to look at
them as these complete people who had childhoods that were
pretty messed up on their own, particularly my mother who
edited unredacted her childhood across the board. But the fact
of the matter is she was dumped 3 years old by her mother with
relatives should never met before left there for 6 years.
And then her mother came back and said, Oh, I met this doctor
and I'm gonna get remarried. And now we're moving to
Chicago. Let's go her head. I think that impacted her that
I think it the band and then yes, but not. But to her.
I wrote about this to her. The way she added to the story
was I totally understood that mother had to go and do her
work as an actress. She was 3 just bad. She just knew mommy's
driving away. So you learn to feel compassion for your 3
year-old mom? Yes, yes. Yeah. Yeah. And in an environment
that I am assuming was not that nurturing because she never
talked about it to ever. And so I don't know how much those are very formative years.
I mean, 3 years old, who p**** trained or who came into her
room at night if she had nightmares. You know, I don't nothing was ever talked about.
I think she was a very lonely. I'm desperate little girl who developed some survival
skills as a result of that that made her a very formidable in
controlling woman. You know, and you write about the foundation or lack thereof
that your parents provided and you write about it in the
context of their relationship in this quote that you have in the book
really stood out to me. You say the circle of just the 2 of you
was the overriding reality of our family. It dominated
everything many years later. I told someone that is
children. We have the sense that if we were spirited away
by pirates, you and dad would miss us. But you'd be fi.
I said it lightly with humor. But it was because of that
impenetrable circle that we were family was no real.
The foundation has been really challenging as the yeah.
I mean, it is. And I I use that biblical phrase of building a
house and on sand versus building a house on Iraq. And it was it was a, you know,
there was no, there was no familial foundations there. They were
this entity and we orbited outside of it. And, you know, we all knew that.
But and I written about as to when
I look at home movies and I look at older photographs when
it was just the 3 of us before my brother was born. I was 6
when he was 4th. It was different. I mean, I I
look at my mother in those home movies and there was tenderness
there. And there was like a joy of motherhood that comes across
in those that definitely dissipated as as the years went
on. But, you know, there was love and
tenderness there. And that's part of the story, too. And I
think that's something that I want people to take away from
this in their own situation said, if you can think of any
times, even if they're only like little slivers of time
when there was love there, that's part of your story, too. And it is almost haunting.
When you talk about going back and looking at those home
videos, it must have been emotional, incredibly emotional
to look back. You know, it's funny when I was a little girl,
my father used to roll up the screen, you know, in the living
room and he player home and And then when I was older, he,
you know, I quoted him in this evening. Will you called her
family dysfunctional? We weren't look at the home movies
and I would go up. You know, they don't tell anything.
But when I looked at them later, I want no that actually
tell a lot. They tell a lot. You know, you also write that there were
moments when you actually felt afraid of your mom. Lot of moment.
Why was that? Where did that come from? She was, as I said, she was a
formidable presence. And, you know, there was just I I
wrote this were like American Russia. You know, we were just always at odds and I seem to be the person who
anger turn no matter what I did. You know, so I was very intimidated by her up till to up till and
after she died. I mean, when she died, she died in the
middle of the night and it was a long time for the
Kerner can come out. They needed a police escort needing
all. It's tough to get her body. So her body lay there in
bed for, you know, like half a day. And I remember standing
there looking down at her and saying to myself, okay, she's
gone. She's gone. She is nowhere on this earth. But
there was another part of me that was going. I'm not so sure
I was waiting for her to pop up and tell me to cut my hair. You know, I just couldn't
really believe that you actually like she's just
kidding. It is that was that divide? Because you we're a very strong-willed
person in your own, right? Do you think from a young age?
Maybe? But, you know, I think no matter what I did was just
going to be there. I think my mother was always better with
males and females. So when Ron was born, it was, you know,
there is there is a moment and I wrote about this, too, in our
home movies when runs a toddler in the swimming pool and I go
splashing over there on the Grafton, I go splashing over
and there's no sound in those movies. This is from long time
ago. But, you know, I'm real happy,
especially with that. And she like pushes me away and says
something harsh. I I don't know what. And it's a moment that
kind of resonates with me because I thought, okay, now
we're on the downhill slide. It happened that early use.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Have you and and through
writing this letter to your mom and dad, do you think you've
made peace with your mom? If you come to terms with the
new white pick a year? I I'm sad for her. I'm sad for her
that she never got the well, maybe early on. But after that,
she never got the joy of motherhood. You know, it was not it just kind of lost. So she
never really got that. You know, that overwhelming love.
And I I don't know, joy that that
mothers have for their children. And I'm sad for her
that she missed that. And I was sad for her for the whole time
that my father was ill because she didn't have the full to the
family around her because it had been so fractured. I mean,
I was there for her. And sometimes, you know, it was
fine. And I was welcome there. And and sometimes it was tense.
But she didn't. She didn't have that. And so it makes me sad for her.
You didn't have the same standoff with your father, but
you did have you differences with him differences in
viewpoints. How did this book impact how
you reflect an feel about your dad? Well, I've always felt more
tenderness to my father, my mother. I mean, my father
and I were not at odds except, you know,
obviously when I was in doing demonstrations and things like
that. But a lot of it, a lot of the tension between us was
because I had tension with my mother and he and she were such
a fused circle that, you know, if you
don't get along with her, then I'm going. But, you know,
I he couldn't see my side of things. So that sort of got in the way.
But thank you know, everybody.
Sarah wanted more from my father. He had a reserve about
him. It was a very sweet reserve. It was very enduring
reserve. But there was a reserve about him where people
are always reaching for more from him and trying to figure
him out. People are still trying to figure him out.
You know, people are still writing books about him in
trying to figure him out. And I I said to someone I don't
know recently, I think that to understand Ronald Reagan,
you have to understand that everything about him bounced
off the fact that he was a child of an alcoholic.
Everything. Whether you want to look at his politics, his
policies, the way he governed the way he lived his life as a
family meant everything bounced off of that. And to me a long
time to really get that to think you fully understand your
father having written about him so extensively haven't written
this letter to him. I understand him
much better now. And I as I said, I came to understand him
better during Alzheimer's, because, you know, Alzheimer's
is a peeling away. So I got to see that a young boy who was near
sighted and just, you know, had his nose in a book because
you can see anything outside of that and had this alcoholic
father in that house. And and I got to see like
different phases of his life because in all, like I said,
it's a peeling away layers of the person goes back through
time. So you get to see that. And I I really was very deliberate
about being very open in in that experience, to learn from
it and and grow as much as I could. I am going to ask you
about your father's Alzheimer's in a moment, but I want to ask
you about activism. What what you just
referenced, the fact of the 19 as you became very outspoken
and you're right. The truth I have to live with now is that
while I was appearing at rallies talking about world
peace, the only thing being communicated was that I was at
war with my father. Yeah. Why did you want to be so
outspoken while he was still OK? So I when he was elected
president, I mean, I did not want to be the president's
daughter and I did not want any of this, you know, but I
thought I remember sitting there in my apartment and
thinking, okay, well, maybe so. Maybe I
can do some good here. I was already involved in the
anti-nuclear movement. No one cared until it was hard to
present one other person there. So it was something that I
passionately believed then. And I thought, OK, well, I can
use this to bring more attention to this. This issue
that I feel so strongly about. But, you know, I was young.
I was 28 years old. And I didn't I mean, I have to kind of
forgive myself for that. You know that I yes, of course,
I do this demonstration and I'll stand up on stage at the
Rose ball and, you know, be kind of a thorn in his side in
a way if I if I were than the person that
I am now I would go okay. I can speak out, but I can do
it and pads or I could do it in an interview. I don't have to
do it like that. And I think, you know, that's
the difference. As like I said, what I I kind of have to have
somebody else said to me, well, I did this in the past.
I regret it so much. I would say to them, well, did you know
any better at the time? And if you didn't then and you didn't.
So you don't regret your actions? I just you. But I also
then have to say, but you have to like, forgive yourself for
not knowing any, but I didn't sit there and go. I'm really
get hurt him. I can do that. You know, I thought I was doing
the right thing, you know, and then and I did
try to forge this relationship or this dialogue,
rather between him and the anti-nuclear movement and the
activists by bringing Helen Caldecott to the White House.
I mean, that was I thought, oh, this is like the best idea
ever had in my life. You know, and I wanted to be an ongoing
series of of communications and meetings
between him and anti nuclear activists. And that was just not to be
because after that one meeting that was disastrous, that was it. But I but I wanted
it for him to, you know, I wanted people to see that he
could listen to the other side to people who
he disagreed to s. Well, another major issue that
he grappled with this president was the AIDS epidemic. And you
write about this one of the moments the right about is how
he explains sexual orientation to you. His friend Rock Hudson, of
course, pass. Tragically, talk a little bit about that
moment. What did he say to you? So a little bit like, yeah, so
I was young. I mean, I don't know 8, 9, something like that,
maybe and we were in the den. It was just me and my father.
And we're watching 2. I was sitting down. He was in the
chair, nursing down on the floor, like was like, and it
was Rock Hudson, Doris Day, moving into Richmond and and
they were kissing and I went that's weird. What what do you
mean? I said, you know, it just looks weird.
And he said, well, he said Rock Hudson doesn't really want to
be kissing her. He wants to be kissing a man. And I think I
saw my memory is that I said alike and Glasgow in Italy
because we have these 2 lesbian and they were called Anthony
and they weren't Ryan's. But, you know, call them that.
They were a couple. I mean, to me, they were a married
couple. They stay. They babysat us. When when my brother was
like 2 or something in my parents went to Hawaii, he
slept in my parents bed. They lived together. They're
always together 2. They were married couple to me. So I was
not unfamiliar with this. And I said, OK, he said, yeah,
that's why it looks strange to you. It's fascinating because that's
such a personal moment. And he clearly was in some ways ahead
of the curve in terms of being able to share that with you at
such a young age. And yet you say you are disappointed to some
extent by his public response. I'm heartbroken by an IED
wanted to write about for a long time, like in an
op-ed or something, you know, and there was just never really
the right opportunity to to do so. So when I start writing
this, I thought, well, I'm going to write about this now, not to make excuses, not to really make anything other than
what it was, which was a failure, but to try to explain some
things primarily that, you know, one of his character
flaws was that he delegated things to other people. And
then he didn't. You just believe that they
would tell him what he needed to know, which was not the
case. And there were very homophobic people in his
administration. There were people who believed that AIDS was God's revenge on gay
people. I mean, who went that far with, you know, and did not
want him talking about AIDS. And it was when Rock Hudson
died, that they they kind of went well, I can keep it from
now. And he, but he allowed things
to be kept from him. And as I wrote in here, you
know, for for someone who's timing usually was pretty
impeccable. Its timing failed pretty much every step of the
way that so I can't make it
anything other than what it was. But what I I can say is 2
people who think, oh, he didn't care about gay people or he was
homophobic. That's not true. A few forgiven him for his
response. What you say was a failed response to the AIDS
crisis. That's a hard question. I don't know. I mean, I guess I need to that's a tough one. I mean, I
love I had friends who died in your mom. I definitely have not
reached the top of the mountain when it comes to forgive.
That's your mom encouraged him to speak public. She did it and
you talk about it in the context that she was often a
shield for him in from some of the people in his
administration who are maybe leading him
astray. Yeah, but that see that puzzles
me, too, because yes, she was. And yes, she pushed him a
little bit. But I don't understand why she didn't push
him more. She knew people who are dying of aids. Her
hairdresser died of AIDS. She had lots of gay friends.
So I don't I don't understand that eyes
are, you know, because he listened to her. And and I
don't I don't know why. Like I said, I don't know
Washington pushing harder. There's so much that I don't
know in that you're right of your father's
policy positions and this is specifically about
abortion. You say you would probably be amused by that
after my public rebelling against your policies. I have
occasionally taken on the task of trying to explain a few of
your positions not to excuse or indoors but simply to shed
light on how I feel. You arrived at some of them like
abortion like abortion. Yeah, I was prolife with exceptions.
Yeah, we'll heat. The bill he passed in California was that
was revolutionary. I mean, before that girls could not.
I knew the woman who went to Mexico and were blindfolded as
superintendent let into clinics. How do you think he arrived at
that position? And and and I guess what do you think he would say
today in the wake of Roe v Wade being overturned? I mean, I I don't know. I I don't think you would like a
lot of what's going on right now. And I think that that that
was probably one of them. What I what I explained in this
book, and I also the first up and I wrote for The New York
Times was about his views on abortion and how, in my opinion, he was very
influenced by the fact that he and Jane Wyman lost a baby
today sold who he never got see because he was ill with
pneumonia, literally fighting for his life to. And so he never saw. So there
was this baby. It was just it was born.
And that was she was gone. And I think that the the dialogue that anti-abortion
people use resonated with that grief in him that I don't think
he ever really allowed himself to feel. And now because he
never talked about it, I never knew that Christine Reagan even
existed until I was in my 40's. How painful that really noticed
or so I'm going to dedicate the book to touch to Christine
Reagan. And I said, who's that? was it painful when you
realized that history? Yeah, yeah, because I thought, you
know, if you don't 2, don't explore your grief. If you
don't acknowledge their grief and it's going to claim you in
other ways and you're going to play out in other ways and it's
going to become this whole sort of tangled mess. I think one of the incredibly powerful moments of
the book is when you talk about your role to the rest of the
country, America kind of sat with your family at the dinner
table and it's only through your father's illness. Yeah,
that you were able to forgive and you say it wasn't until you
got Alzheimer's, that I came to appreciate America's companion,
Shia people approached me with compassion with sympathy.
We were in a realm beyond politics. There was no way that
everyone who spoke to me agreed with your politics. They were
responding to you as a human being, not just a political
figure and there was sustenance to that. Yeah. How did that
impact you? Very powerfully. I was living
in New York still when he was diagnosed and then released his
letter to the country in the world.
And, you know, this was 1994, people were not talking about
Alzheimer's. This was really revolutionary that he did this
and was so open about it. And so I bet, you know, walking
around Manhattan and there were people would recognize me and
then come up to me and tell me about their own situations with
a parent or a grandparent or Gorman and her uncle, whatever. You know, I knew that they were
telling me things that they probably didn't even tell
friends of theirs. They were Tony, really personal things. And then and then they just be
gone. I sort of felt like it was in the French underground
or something given like little bits of information, people I
never going to see again and was going to piecing together
all of this information. But I started to feel like
there's this network of people around me in this country who
know about my situation and know about our family and my father who are who feel compassion for
us. And so it it did. It was like this, this odd kind of
companionship words before it was so resentful of the entire country.
Understandably. So. You felt like the country had taken away
from my family and your father. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if you could reflect
on today's politics. You right. This beautiful account of Tip
O'Neill visiting your father, his hospital bed and how different our politics feel today.
The inability to reach across the aisle, frankly, to form
those types of bonds where you can. Yeah, they vigorously in
Washington but be there for each other on a very personal
level. What do you think your father would say about our
current state of politics? I think he would be. So I think it be appalled, really,
you know. And yeah, they used to have Martinez together to an
old Irish guys like sharing a drink after, you know, it's
like 2 lawyers battling it out in court and go into having a
drink or animal. And I mean, it was more a it
was just more civilized. And I he didn't understand lack
of civility. He didn't understand attacking another person.
I mean, he could be, you know, pretty pointed in his and what he would say about
someone else. But he didn't understand cruelty. And that's what we're dealing
with now. And I think he would understand
that. And I think he would be I think he would be really
scared for our democracy. And I think that I don't I don't know who I
think he would address people more than any candidates.
You know, I think he would address the
American at what has what has divided
us. And I mean, in my own opinion, and
I think I don't know. I think this probably is how he would
think is our divisions really started
because rough, because we're all so scared. There's so much fear around
whether we're going to get shot in the mass shooting. Our
children are or, you know, if you walk into a stores are
going to be injured or a church where ever, you know, we're
scared and fear Morrison to anger. It just does. It's not
sustainable. We don't want to be afraid. We don't mind so
much being angry. And, you know, there are people on the
public stage in on the political front who understand
very well that synergy between the fear and anger and her
masterful at exploiting it. The other big issue that has
been in the forefront right now is the issue of age. Your
father when he was elected at the time was the oldest person
elected president. 6.16. I know. Now obviously the president is
in his 80's for President Trump. The frontrunners in his
late 70's. Do you think there should be cognitive tests for
people running for the highest office in the land? Probably.
Yeah. I mean, in just what we know about what age can do, it
doesn't always do that but probably be a good idea.
I know my father was 77 when he left office after 2 terms since
young now does not. Yes. Did it seem at the time to you?
We talked about your dad is being at the time the oldest
president? I think it did because, you know, it was it
was it was 87, I believe when he
stood in front of the Berlin Wall and said, you know, Mister
Gorbachev, tear down this wall. So that was not someone who was fractured in in age. I mean, yes, I probably thought
he was old, could fall parents. But, you know, not not in the way that that we're
talking about now. Do you see ink that? And I
guess the question is, do you think of political
families now? Obviously we spend a lot of
time talking about the adult children of our politicians. Do you
reflect on that at all? The intense scrutiny? Yeah, yeah. Least. Get stabbed
Tuesday. You know, I mean, I was I mean, I hate I did not
like being first are at all. I didn't like being followed
around by Secret Service. And I wrote about signing off
from them after 4 years. I mean, nobody could do that.
Now. The world's too dangerous to countries too dangerous.
You know, I mean, they my brother did it first
coronavirus. My brother Brown signed off from them first and
I went, oh, you can do that. And so I have to write this
letter and then they send someone they so one of the
suits down from Washington to basically try to scare you, you know, and they sat in my
little apartment of the dining room table and it was time.
Well, you know, there could be kidnapped
threats and we can't protect you in staff. And I said to
him. >> Okay. Anybody looking at the
Reagan family isn't going to go. Let's take Patty. Who would
pay for me? Haha, I was there the next 4 years with no Secret
Service protection which helped a lot. I didn't know what a
great I was never afraid. No, I was no. But that's the
difference. I mean, now, if if there were a first family
in the White House and somebody like texting me or something or
wrote me and said you signed up. I think I'm going to I
would go don't do that. World now is not. I mean, yes, there
were dangers, but >> don't do that. Well, you
know, that leads to my next question, which is you had one
of the most famous last names in the world in American
politics. You decided to change it. Yeah. Why? And do you ever
regret that decision? No, I don't. Because like most
children of famous parents, I just wanted my own identity.
You know, and I wanted 5 minutes when someone met me
to just sort of size me up and and like, look at me as a
person rather than governor's daughter. I was a teenager when
I decided to use to change my name. And I went through all these
different names. I mean, you know, little hippie chick
that I was I thought of like a single number rain was one of
them. I'm going to be rain because I was writing poetry
the time I thought that's couldn't write Ponson Reyna.
Now I thought was stupid. >> And I didn't want to thank
her by parents. I couldn't like go to the I'm going to be rain
and now. And so there were limits. Yeah, so I didn't want
I did not want to hurt them. I didn't want to make them
angry. And I thought, well, my mother's maiden name is
Davis there mean they're like 85 million Davis's around.
I mean, that's not you know, that doesn't like set off any alarms and people. So I thought all do that will
be Patty Davis. And I remember having that conversation with
them and trying to explain to them that I just want someone
to look at news, a person just for a few minutes before they
figure out who I am. You think they understood they did
understand and they weren't around? Yeah, it actually worked a
moment of connection between there was a connection and they
and they actually they did. They did understand, you know,
they were very accepting of it. So much of the Republican Party
to this day still speaks about wrestles with debates. Your
father's legacy tries to emulate. What do you say Inc? Your father's message would be
if he were sitting here today to the country to our current
politicians. I think he would want people to
look at one another as human beings. You know, that's why he and
Gorbachev, we're able to do what they did, which was world
changing at the time because they looked at each other as
human beings. And and that's what's missing
now. You know, these were 2 people
who are put on the stage of history in a moment in time to,
in my opinion, do what God intended them to do. They might
not have, you know, but they were both to people who I think
have the same agenda of looking at each other as a human being.
Gorbachev came to my father's service in Washington, D.C., I
got to meet him. He says he was very shy, serve
vulnerable person. They all met him briefly. But you know,
that's the impression that I got from one of them. You think
we've lost that ability to look at each other as human beings?
Yeah, I do. I do. For the most part.
Yeah. Is there anything that gives
you hope when you look out at America that this country? I don't know. It depends on
what day of the week. You ask me. I think you know me, I want
to have hope. I want to have faith that we will get through
this, that we will come back together. But but
like I was saying, I think that I think because there's so much
fear and anger because anger always
sits on top of fear that it's hard to find that
face. You know, it's hard to to really say, yes, word. And and
you know, that's what it is. I didn't grow up in calm times.
There was a civil rights movement. There was the women's
movement that was the antiwar movement. It's not like America
was calm and happy. But there were people like
Martin Luther King like John Lewis and many others who are
rooted in this faith that that America could function
from her better angels. You know that that this was still a
great country, which was remarkable. Always to me,
because you think about what Doctor King and John Lewis
experienced and witnessed to have that faith is really
remarkable. I don't see that now. It's not
there. They're not eloquent voices out there. There are.
But I don't feel that I don't feel that
routed nus and absolutely, you know, we can do this. We can get
through this. I believe in this in this country. I don't see that. >> And just finally, Patty,
when people read your book, I read it is a daughter as a
mom and took so much from it from all those places. What do
you hope people take from your book from sharing opening up
about this deeply personal part of your life and your heart? I hope they look at their own
families and and go, OK, how can I look at this
differently? How can I just take a step back in the same
way that you take a step back from a painting to really see
the whole picture? How can I step back from my family and my
life and and look at it differently
and no, and look at it through more mature eyes and and it to
a more complete vision. And then if you can do
that with your family, you can do that with other people. People are are more
complicated. Then they appear to be wonderful. Thank you
