Mike Huckabee releases video featuring wife Janet talking about her battle with cancer
Janet Huckabee: "You don't like to hear the word cancer. And you certainly don't like to hear the word malignant."
Little Rock, Ark. - Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee released a video today titled "Promise," featuring his wife Janet Huckabee talking about her battle with cancer and Gov. Huckabee's response to Hurricane Katrina, when the state of Arkansas inherited 75,000 evacuees from the storm.
Transcript of the video is as follows:
First Lady Janet Huckabee:
"Mike and I have been married 41 years now, but after our first year of marriage I started experiencing some back pain, and you don't like to hear the word cancer. And you certainly don't like to hear the word malignant."
"I think Mike really was the hero in all of it because he would get up early in the morning, pack me into the car, he would drive an hour to an hour and twenty minutes to my radiation therapy and then bring me back home, put me in the house, and be in class that morning, plus hold a job down."
"If he could have left me, he should have done it right then, and he chose to stick it out. He made a promise to me, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health. He had to live up to that promise right then in our first couple years of marriage."
"I don't know how you can go through anything like that and not get stronger."
"As Governor and First Lady, one thing I did learn about Mike is his leadership qualities. He had the capacity to take any situation, look at it, and see how each decision he could make further down the road would affect the state and the people."
"For Katrina, our state inherited 75,000 people in just a few days. Mike instantly said I want all my faith leaders to come forward - your summer is over - any denomination that had a camp for instance, where they already had beds, they already had playgrounds, they already had cafeterias - he says I need you need to open up, we're going to put these new residents that we have into your camps. And every camp became another little town. They loved them. They took them in, and so much so that many didn't even want to leave. Through the whole thing Mike said 'People first, paperwork later. Don't treat these people like boxes.'"
"One of the important parts of really running for any office, but primarily running for president, is that you are willing to give up something in order to do it, because it's not an easy task."
"But I'm always reminded of a song that said 'may all who come behind us find us faithful.' l hope that even those headlines that my children and my grandchildren will see, that they will see that we were faithful...not just what we were given as governor and first lady, as mom and dad, or as grandmother and grandfather, but that we were faithful in running our campaign, that we did it to the best of our ability, but did it with good character and nothing to be ashamed about and to be proud of what we did."
Yesterday, Mike announced that he is running for President and I couldn’t be more proud of him. As I think of Mike and our campaign, I remember a song that said 'may all who come behind us find us faithful.' I hope in the weeks and months ahead that you will see that we were faithful, especially in running our campaign, that we did it to the best of our ability, and that we did it with good character and pride in what we did.
We know this race for President will be a marathon and it will come with its own knocks and bruises but Mike and I have been married 41 years. And I learned very early in our marriage that Mike is a man who keeps the promises he makes. After our first year of marriage, when I started experiencing back pain, we heard the words no one ever wants to hear - "malignant cancer.”
Such a traumatic life experience could have led a young married couple down a very different path, but Mike took seriously the promise of his vows: “in sickness and in health,” and he was the hero during that part of our lives. It made us both stronger.
As Governor, one thing I have learned about Mike is his leadership qualities. He can take any situation, and analyze each decision he could make and how that decision would affect our state and people further down the road.
