Born on June 8th, 1925, Barbara Bush is the wife of George H. W. Bush, who was the 41st President of the United States, mother of George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States and of Jeb Bush, the former Governor of Florida. While George H. W. Bush was in office from 1989 to 1993, Barbara Bush was the First Lady of the United States. She had also been the Second Lady of the United States for eight years prior to that, while her husband served as vice president. During her time as Second Lady, First Lady and after she left the White House, Barbara Bush has been an avid supporter of the cause of universal literacy.

Barbara Bush has been suffering from Graves disease for a while, a disease which her husband had soon come down with too. Soon after that, even their dog, Millie, contracted Graves. Given the very low odds of three cases of Graves disease developing in such a short period of time, the Secret Services investigated the water and soil at the White House, at Camp David, at the Vice President’s house and at the Bush’s home in Maine, Walker’s Point.

The former First Lady was taken to hospital recently, accusing slight abdominal pain. Apparently, the pain she had been feeling for a few days was actually a perforated ulcer. At the hospital in Houston, Texan, the 83-year-old woman was in good spirits both before and after she underwent surgery to have the perforated ulcer repaired. According to the doctors, the former First Lady had the perforated ulcer in the duodenum. It is suspected that it may have been caused by anti-inflammatory medicine.