HOUSTON – George and Barbara Bush were married for 73 years.
VIDEO: George Bush reads love letter to Barbara
Their story is a true love story, from the very beginning.
PHOTOS: George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush through the years
From tragedy to joy, the two were together, side by side, for decades.
George noticed Barbara Pierce at an exchanged dance while he was a student at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1941.
"George Bush sees her and asks a friend to introduce them. So they start to dance and a waltz comes on, and G.B. says, 'I don't know how to waltz. Can we sit down and talk?'" George H.W. Bush Library and Museum director Warren Finch said.
A year and a half later, the two were engaged. It was just before George went off to war as a Navy pilot.
"If you read some of those letters that President Bush wrote, when he was that fighter pilot and those letters were sent back to his mother saying, 'I love Barbara. Do you think she's going to be there for me when I get home?'" Finch said.
Of course, she was, but planning a wedding wasn't easy.
"You'll notice that the date is penciled in. They were originally going to get married on Dec. 17, but he couldn't get back to get married, so they had to write the date of the wedding onto the wedding invitation," Finch said.
They were finally married on Jan. 6, 1945.
The couple had six children over 13 years.
"They loved each other. They laughed together. They cried together. They carried burdens together," former White House chief of staff Andrew Card said.
When George decided to get into politics, Barbara was by his side.
"I would say that Barbara is the one who would dream, and have the visions for our country or the visions of the right thing to do, and I think she is the straight shooter. She doesn't mince words. She has an opinion, and she's so darling about giving that opinion, that you just can't help but love her," former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said.
And love her like George did.