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Barbara Bush is remembered by social secretary Laurie Firestone

Barbara Bush is remembered by social secretary Laurie Firestone

Laurie Firestone, who lives on Nob Hill, was social secretary to George H.W. Bush while he was vice president, then for four years of his presidential term at the White House. We talked on Monday, April 23, after Firestone had returned from Barbara Bush’s funeral in Houston. There were 1,500 people invited, she said, from a list Firestone thought that Barbara Bush had made beforehand, along with many of the other plans for the funeral, specifying also “things she wanted done and not done.”

“They had so many friends, and the family itself is over 100 when you count extended family.” Many guests were members of the East Wing staff, all of whom “were very special to her,” said Firestone. Among the decisions Firestone thought the former first lady had made was having Jeb Bush speak on behalf of the family, evidenced by his revelation that she’d told him to keep it short and not to cry. As to describing the late first lady, “I felt that he hit the nail on the head. He described what she was like as a mother, and also all the good she did.”

What was it like working for Barbara Bush?

“All of the White House stories were pretty well documented,” said Firestone, “but before that, in the vice presidential house, I have some very strong memories. That was sort of off-bounds for the press, and consequently there was a different feeling there than in the White House.”

Firestone had been hired in 1981, before Ronald Reagan’s inauguration. “I asked her when she’d like me to start. And she said, ‘I think you’d better start on Inauguration Day, because we will be coming back with all of our family, 100 or maybe 125, with lots of children. And we’ll want a buffet lunch, so you just plan that.” When Firestone asked about particulars, Mrs. Bush replied, “‘You know what, any way you want to do it is perfect for me.’ And honestly, that was the way she treated me the rest of those 12 years.”

What sorts of things bothered her?

“What annoyed her the most would be things that would happen but not by choice or oversight, when we had forgotten to tell her something. She didn’t like surprises. She wants to know, the good or the bad. She’d say, ‘Just tell me.’ ... When she was at the White House, on one trip they said, ‘You don’t need to go,’ and that never happened again. She said, ‘No, I will be on every trip.’”

In general, “She was on a pretty even keel as long as you were straight and honest. All the qualities that she represented you had to have, or else you didn’t last. She expected the best from us, but she expected the best from herself.”

As to their views of subsequent presidents, “Once they got out of office, the Bushes never did anything else political, never criticized. They just retired and felt that every president had his moment and had the right or privilege of serving the country in his way.”

•Bay Area Dance Week, a 10-day free dance festival (www.bayareadance.org), begins Friday, April 27, with “One Dance” at City Hall at noon. If you are sitting at your desk reading this — as I am sitting at my desk writing it — a visit to the site will be a visit to a dance class, enabling you to study up and join the crowd in the Rotunda. Those who haven’t studied will be welcome, too. But I dare you to watch this video and not shake your booty and shimmy your shoulders, even if you’re still sitting down.

•At Target in Richmond, Adriane Ahnsted saw another customer, a young man wearing blue denim overalls, with a live cat — a Russian blue — hanging draped inside the bib. Its head was poking out one side and its tail flopping around the other. And up and down the aisles, the whisper could be heard: “Cat!”

•Shirley-Anne Owden, in poor health, was being admitted to a hospital when the nurse asked her if she had an advance directive. Without hesitation, reports her husband, Rob Hoskins, she said, “Yes. Everyone should know that I really, really hate Trump.”

“I don’t care what you do, as long as it’s not on purpose.”

Woman to woman, overheard at Redwood Health Club in Fort Bragg by Les Cizek