Former first lady Barbara Bush passed away late Tuesday at the age of 92 after being hospitalized numerous times while battling congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Despite deteriorating health towards the end of her life, the woman known as “everybody’s grandmother” left a unique mark on America during her time; an impact that will not be forgotten.

Barbara Bush served as the First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, and was the Second Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She is one of the only two women to be both a wife and a mother to a president of the United States, the other one being Abigail Adams. Her husband, George H.W. Bush, was the nation’s 41st president while her son George W. Bush was the 43rd president. Abigail Adams was the wife of the second president, John Adams, and mother of the sixth president, John Quincy Adams.

Born into a wealthy family in In the suburban town of Rye, New York, she had a happy childhood. She grew up to be an athletic and smart young girl with a particular interest in reading. She met her future husband, George Herbert Walker Bush when she was only 16 at her boarding school, Ashley Hall, located in South Carolina. It was at a dance during Christmas vacation, when George was a senior at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.

They became engaged a year and a half later, just before he went off to war as a Navy torpedo bomber pilot. By the time George returned on leave, Barbara had dropped out of Smith College.and married him a few years later while he was serving as a naval officer in World War II.

While her husband was busy with his work duties Bush raised their children, providing everything from discipline to carpools. The death of their daughter Robin from leukemia when she was short of turning four left her with a lifelong compassion.

“Because of Robin, George and I love every living human more,” she once said.

While serving as the First Lady, she founded the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, which was initially inspired by her son Neil’s dyslexia. This foundation has a goal to improve the lives of disadvantaged Americans by increasing literacy among parents and their children.

The organization partners with local programs, and as of 2014 has awarded more than $40 million to create or expand similar programs nationwide. She continued to promote her cause even after leaving the White House.

“Focusing on the family is the best place to start to make this country more literate, and I still feel that being more literate will help us solve so many of the other problems facing our society,” Bush wrote in her 1994 memoir.

Not only does her hard work make her timeless, as Bush’s charm truly struck a chord with Americans. Little did she know that the triple-strand false pearl necklace she wore to her husband’s inauguration in 1989 would spark a national fashion trend. The pearls became Bush’s trademark, who later admitted she selected them to hide the wrinkles in her neck. Her honesty and humility only increased her common sense and down-to-earth public image.

While the nation mourns the loss of such a precious political figure, Barbara Bush’s own words can leave some with a sense of consolation.

“At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child or a parent.”