On finding a child while running a relief mission to Bangladesh in 1991: I was working in Dhaka, and a friend of mine from Arizona had said to me, “Look, while you’re there, do me a favor. Mother Teresa has an orphanage in Dhaka. Would you mind seeing if they need any help?” And I said, “Sure.” We finally found the orphanage, and we saw 150 newborns on one floor. And a lot of them were sick. And the nuns said, “[This little girl with a cleft palate]–can’t you take her and get her medical help?” And I thought, well, sure I can, I can do that.
The honest story is that on the flight from Bangkok to Los Angeles, I knew I couldn’t give this child up. She was scheduled to go to a family who would care for her while she underwent her surgery. So I decided that I’d hopefully go home to a willing family, and we would take her. And that’s exactly what happened. I stepped off the plane in Phoenix with [the 2-month-old child who became] our daughter Bridget. John was there, and he leaned down and kind of whispered to me, because there was a lot of media, “Where’s she going to go?” And I said, “Well, you know, I had this idea, I thought maybe she’d come home with us.” And he just looked at me and winked and said, “I had a feeling.” And from that moment, she belonged to him, too. She’s undergone a lot of surgery, and she has more to go, but she’s thriving.
On her drug-abuse problems in the early 1990s: I had endured a couple of spinal surgeries and became addicted to the pain medication that I was on. And obviously I did some things that were very wrong. I took some drugs from the medical team that I was working with, and never deprived those that I was helping but certainly helped myself. My parents faced me down and said, “There’s something wrong with you.” And at that moment I stopped. Cold turkey. Never took another pill. Then later on I had to answer for what I had done. In Arizona we have a system that allows first-time users like me to be able to go into treatment and do community service, and that’s what I did.
[Senator McCain had] no idea. Addicts are pretty cunning at what they do. He never saw me take any pills. And, of course, he wasn’t home. That’s one of the reasons that my parents saw it first, because they live across the street from me, and they could see that I didn’t look right, or I wasn’t acting right, or I was thin. I’d lost a lot of weight.
On how she learned her husband would be targeted in 1988 as part of the savings and loan scandal: I was in a hospital. I’d just gone through my second spinal surgery. And this kid, a resident in the hospital, came in and threw the newspaper on my bed. And he said, “Well, I guess your husband’s in some kind of trouble–he may not be so good after all.” That’s how I found out about the Keating Five.
On the issues she would stress as First Lady: First and foremost for me is my family. I have to care for four small children and for my husband, too. But adoption would be a main issue, along with foster care and women’s health care. And I would hopefully be a good role model [on the drug issue]. I’m in recovery. If I can do it, then maybe they can do it, too. And maybe it would help somebody.
