George H.W. Bush's One-Time Pastor Says He Is 'Like a Cat With Nine Lives' as Former President Recuperates From Fall
Bonnie Steinroder, longtime friend and one-time pastor for George H.W. Bush who is now recuperating at his summer home in Maine after being hospitalized with a broken vertebra in his neck, says the 91-year-old former president is like "a cat with nine lives."
"He is unbelievable. He is a cat with nine lives," Steinroder, who served as the pastor at First Congregational Church, which was attended by the Bushes, told People.
Steinroder who currently serves as senior minister at First Congregational Church in Holliston, Massachusetts, told People she hasn't seen Bush in person since 2008, but corresponds with him and his wife, Barbara, by letter regularly.
"I think very highly of the Bushes," said Steinroder, who explained that Bush felt for a long time "his life was in God's hands."
"My impression of him, as a pastor and friend, is that he never spent a lot of time lamenting or worrying," she said, noting that the former president is also "very funny."
Bush was released from the hospital on Sunday, according to his spokesperson Jim McGrath. His injury is being treated with a neck brace and he's expected to recover without surgery.
"The president never lost consciousness, and the injury he sustained neither impinged on his spine nor resulted in any neurological deficits," said McGrath in a statement on Bush's injury Thursday. "He continues to have normal use of his limbs."
Regarding Bush's recovery process, Steinroder said, "He's overcome health issues, he continues to show up for charity events, he continues to face life with optimism."
Bush was previously hospitalized in late 2014 in Houston after experiencing shortness of breath, and in 2012 for bronchitis, explained People. For his 90th birthday in 2014, he went skydiving.
