President Ronald Reagan is now sitting among the angels and watching his beloved America from above

As I write this I am still having trouble grasping the fact that my great protector Ronald Reagan is gone. I was born in 1975 so President Reagan is the first President that I can remember as a young girl.

If you asked me to cite you specific Reagan policies from that time, there is no way I could do it. My five year old memory did not capture details of tax cuts and supply-side economics. I can tell you though how clearly I remember the talk about “Russia and the bomb” and “nuclear fallout” that seemed to haunt my dreams when I was a young girl in the early 80s.

I remember the times when I sat with my father and watched the nightly news, which frequently showed President Reagan expounding on freedom and peace and protection of our blessed America. I trusted him and loved him. I would tell myself “President Reagan will not let the Russians get us.”

It amazes me now to think that a young girl could grasp something like that with such lion- hearted conviction. We were safe because President Reagan was on the job and you could not tell me otherwise without a fight! That is why I will always remember him as my “Great Protector.”

I came to terms with the fate of President Reagan years ago when I was a college student in 1994. After his Alzheimer’s announcement I knew I would never again see the man of the 1980s who crushed our enemies. For some reason though I was still at peace just knowing he was alive and breathing far away in California. I still felt that security just like I did as a little girl.

Today, while with my beloved conservative friends, I was shattered to hear of Ronald Reagan’s death. The child in me had lost her great protector and that was a feeling for which I never could have prepared.

The adult in me knows President Ronald Reagan is in a better place. He is free from pain and his loved ones are free from the daily constant heartache of seeing their husband and father deteriorate day after day. As an adult, I will take comfort in the thought that President Ronald Reagan is now sitting among the angels and watching his beloved America from above. But unfortunately, the five year old in my heart cannot accept that her noble hero is gone.

If I had one minute with that great man I would have told him that his presence (along with my father’s) in my childhood made me into the die-hard conservative that I am today. He made me believe in the free-enterprise system and the great strength of America and her people. I will be forever grateful for his leadership and vision. I told myself tonight to never give up on the Conservative cause, never fail it, and never let it down. Stand proud, fight hard for American principles, and take nothing for granted. That is what President Reagan would want from all of us.

God Bless you on your journey home Mr. President.

Amanda Paul Connor