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TERRY: But—and it’s a big but—I never had to stand up for anything that was unpopular. I always felt that my job as First Lady was to create a feeling of positiveness towards whatever he was trying to do. And if I did my job correctly, the people wouldn’t remember me for anything other than—“Oh, I think she was pretty nice.” He was struggling so hard with everything of that, for me to start opening my yap and being controversial could have really destroyed it all.

And there are many good things I remember. I know a lot of the First Ladies say this, but I loved visiting schools and reading to the kids. I would always ask teachers about their biggest concerns and then I’d go back to Jesse and say, “This is what I’m learning.” One of the commissions I set up was to help him with education. I would often meet with special-ed teachers, because I knew about these very effective public education programs through the experience with our daughter, Jade.

Jade had had a series of seizures soon after she was born, and for a while we’d been afraid we’d lose her. But she made a miraculous recovery, and was seizure-free until the age of two. I remember I was wrestling in Pittsburgh that night. I was sound asleep when, about two in the morning, I suddenly came wide awake and looked at the telephone. Within ten or fifteen seconds, the phone rang. It was Terry rushing out the door, headed to the hospital because Jade was in the middle of a grand mal seizure.

Not long before this, Jade had been inoculated with the DPT vaccine against diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus. The government makes these shots mandatory for kids at age two, in order for them to later go to school. It’s my understanding that any child susceptible to seizures should not have to get a DPT shot. I went to a convention in Chicago, concerning kids who’d been normal before the shots and were now drooling in wheelchairs. A state patrolman friend of mine attempted to sue the government over this tragedy, but it got nowhere, because no doctor will go on the witness stand and explicitly state that the shots cause this.

After Jade’s grand mal seizure, she had to go on a number of heavy drugs for several years, which set her back tremendously. I feel very fortunate, because today Jade is only mildly handicapped. That isn’t true for those couple-dozen children I saw in Chicago. Yes, these shots are important and have eliminated terrible diseases. But what are these other kids, collateral damage?

I talked to President Clinton about this right before he left office. He described a recent breakthrough in genetics, making it possible to determine whether a child has a certain gene that the DPT shot would affect. Then that child would be exempt from getting it. So far, though, nothing has changed.

I strongly considered resigning early to allow my lieutenant governor, Mae Schunk, to become governor. Mae had been an award-winning elementary school teacher, and this was her first foray into politics. She was gray-haired, grandmotherly, and the sweetest lady you’d ever want to meet. When we’d been campaigning together in the RV, talking “what-ifs,” like who might play at the inauguration, somebody had suggested bringing in Barenaked Ladies. Mae heard that and spun around and scolded me: “You can’t have that at an inauguration!” She had no idea this was the name of a band.

So, with a month to go in office, the legislature not in session, and nothing much going on, I thought, why not make some more history? I’d already done that by appointing an independent, Dean Barkley, to fill Paul Wellstone’s seat in the U.S. Senate. Now this was an opportunity for another independent, Mae Schunk, to become the first female governor of Minnesota. She’d only serve for thirty days, but the Democrats and Republicans would never be able to claim that distinction. And you’d see Mae’s portrait hanging in the statehouse alongside all the other governors!

I also thought this would be another way to endear myself to the Minnesota media. At that