In My Time - Dick Cheney [278]
My Italian holiday ended about the time I came off the ventilator and my eyes focused on the face of a doctor calling my name. When he saw that I was coming to, he said, “How do you feel, Mr. Cheney? You’re looking good.” I knew enough to doubt him and am afraid I did not reply as graciously as I should have. But my rather rude response got a laugh from the doctor and everyone else in the room. I was on my way back.
Like a lot of people who face life-threatening illness and walk in the sunshine again, I couldn’t dismiss the possibility that more than the skill of doctors, the luck of the draw, or my own will to live had pulled me through. I do know that my cause was pleaded in some earnest prayers. On the phone with my old friends John and Mary Kay Turner in Wyoming, Liz asked them to light a candle for me. “We’ll do more than pray,” John told her. “We’ll storm Heaven.”
I have some medical choices to make in the future, but I’m doing well for now. I’ve gotten used to the various contraptions that are always with me, and I’m working and traveling, I’ve hunted a time or two, and I have some fishing planned.
With Lynne, Liz and Phil and our granddaughters, Kate, Elizabeth and Grace near our home in Wyoming, my favorite place on earth. (Official White House Photo/Dav id Bohrer)
My forward strategy is to assume an abundance of good days ahead. Since the age of thirty-seven, when I first learned I had coronary artery disease, my attitude has been to place all bets on a long future and so far it’s worked. But however many tomorrows there are, I know well how fortunate I am to have had the years I’ve had. I have reached the biblical three score and ten, and a man who can look back on the things I have seen and the people I have known has no grounds for complaint.
In my time, I have known and even been saluted by men given far shorter lives who gave far more in service to their country. What a privilege it was to have spent so much of my career in the company of the men and women of the United States armed forces.
At Fort Stewart, Georgia, July 21, 2006, thanking members of the 3rd Infantry Division and the Georgia National Guard's 48rh Brigade Combat Team for their service in Iraq. (Official White House Photo/David Bohrer)
As a young man, and again half a lifetime later, I had a place in the room when great issues were debated and big questions decided. That chance was more than I expected when I headed to Washington more than forty years ago. And how lucky I am to have had Lynne, Liz, and Mary as my companions on that journey and now my grandchildren as well.
At Andrews Air Force Base with granddaughter, Elizabeth Perry and her luggage, getting ready to board Air Force II. (Official White House Photo/David Bohrer)
A seventh has joined us now, Mary and Heather’s daughter Sarah Lynne, the apple of her grandmother’s eye.
With our newest grandbaby, Sarah Lynne, in McLean, Virginia, spring 2011. (Photo by David Bohrer)
Giving grandson Sam a ride on the vice presidential helicopter, Marine II, with Mary and Heather. (Official White House Photo/David Bohrer)
I’ve seen some high-achieving people go far in the world more at the expense of their families than with their families, and to do that is to miss out on one of life’s finest experiences. As a family we’ve shared the work, the joys, and the laughter, the setbacks and the successes, and for that I am a grateful man.
I am a firm believer in America and its work in the world. Our political battles are messy, shrill, and sometimes cruel, and yet for all of that, the system has a way of producing courageous and compassionate action when it is needed most. We have stood firm in the face of evil and defied history in the selfless way we have done it. Instead of seeking empire, we have sought freedom for others.
There have been nearly ten generations since the country’s founding,