Photo: Jeff Fusco/Getty
The first lady has racked up many miles traveling to many places across the country to comfort people experiencing darkness in their lives
Dr.Jill Bidenhas visited 35 states since entering the White House with her husband, PresidentJoe Biden, who’s comparatively been to 24 since taking office. And all during apandemic.
Dr. Biden, 70, says she didn’t expect to take on a “healing role” buttells the Associated Press in a new interview, “We’ve faced so much as a nation.”
First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.Leon Neal/Getty Images
The urge to get out of Washington, D.C., comes from what she says she would expect from a leader in her position.
“I would want to know that my president and first lady cared about me,” the first lady told the AP. “I think that’s an important part of what I do. I mean, just helping people through the tough times.”
The Bidens have been through well-known trials of their own, including the death of the president’s son Beau to brain cancer at 46 andlosing several of the first lady’s friendsto breast cancer.
“I know the tough things that we’ve been through in our life and I know … how much the acts of kindness have meant to me and to Joe,” Dr. Biden told the AP. “So I just know what a difference it makes when you show up. I think showing up is really important.”
Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty
Back in D.C., the first lady said she is still in awe of her home of a year now, the White House, which she calls a “magical place.”
“‘Wow, look where I am,’ " she said she tells herself each morning, waking up in the residence. But she refuses to “get my coffee and sit in bed and watch the news.”
“I’ve always said that if I were ever given this platform I would never waste it. Not one day,” she said. “That’s why when I wake every day I think, ‘What can I do today? … What am I doing? Where am I going? What’s the strategy? What’s the plan?'”
So often in her first year as first lady, that has meant receiving a travel itinerary and taking off for one state or another.
Jill Biden.Anna Moneymaker/Getty
For her second year, though, Dr. Biden said she’s looking to “layer some things on” to her already busy schedule — including spending more time socializing, a traditional first lady’s role, and welcoming artists and visitors to the White House, as long as the pandemic allows it.
“It’s going to be an exciting year. It’s got to be a better year with the pandemic,” she said. “Everybody across this country is saying, ‘C’mon, it’s got to be a better year.’ "
source: people.com
