The Long Goodbye

Ronald Reagan's Executive Assistant Peggy Grande Talks Politics, Life, and Dementia

For a California girl born to a family of educators, politics was a curiosity, a hobby—nothing more. But after writing a letter to President Reagan after he left office, Peggy Grande ended up interning with him in Los Angeles. Over the next 27 years, Peggy became a confidante to the Reagans, working as their executive assistant and having a front-row seat to history. She tells the story in her memoir, The President Will See You Now: My Stories and Lessons from Ronald Reagan's Final Years.

Every day was different. Some days, the banality of office life took over: she had to make copies, she planned travel arrangements. Then, suddenly, she would be reminded who she worked for: visit from diplomats and world leaders, riding in the back of secret service motorcade, having a former president rely on you. This was not an ordinary job. Sometimes, Peggy recalls, “I would turn and look at the man sitting next to me and think, how does a girl like me wind up in a place like this?”

“At the end of the day, whether you're president of the United States or president of a company, it really all comes down to relationships. And he modeled that.”?

One of Peggy’s greatest memories of Reagan is his renowned patriotism and his ability to reach across the aisle. Peggy recalls many political opponents coming to visit Reagan, but they were never able to resist his benevolence. Reagan was a charismatic leader, a man who believed that diplomacy wasn’t just for world leaders, a man who showed Peggy that leaders can be both strong and kind.?

Part of being a strong leader is being direct and not hiding the truth behind closed doors. At that time, memory care diseases were stigmatized and kept hidden. When the president developed Alzheimer’s, the Reagans came out publicly and shared the news with the American people, which sparked a de-stigmatization and more research into dementia and Alzheimer’s.

According to Peggy, most people don’t realize the president lived ten years with Alzheimer’s—they seem to think he just quickly went away, and that’s because most people don’t have a good understanding of dementia. She recalls having to check out a book from the library to really understand Reagan’s diagnosis (since Google didn’t exist). Together with the Reagans, America learned more about dementia and senior care.?

At the risk of sounding morbid, disease and death are the great equalizers. It doesn’t matter who you are; we are all subject to the realities of this world, to getting older, to losing mobility. This is why senior care and senior living is important—it affects all of us, whether we’re presidents or paramedics.?

“So much of life, whether it's politics, whether it's health issues, whether it's growing older—there's so much appeal to fear and doubt. How can we infuse the world and our communities with confidence and remind them of their best hopes?”

Listen to Peggy’s story in Episode 160