November is a month to remember those who have passed on and give thanks for the blessings in our lives.  As a Catholic, November is the month we focus on remembering the faithful departed.  In January of this year, we lost John Bel’s mom, Dora Jean Edwards. She worked as an emergency room nurse for the Charity Hospital System for 26 years. 

Our family was honored to attend the renaming ceremony of the emergency department at the Lallie Kemp Regional Medical Center in Independence, the “Dora Jean Edwards Emergency Department” after his mother.  She was a faithful wife, mother and devout Catholic who was dedicated to helping others even after she retired.  The dedication ceremony highlighted her commitment and the life she lived giving back to the many people in her community. Dora Jean Edwards made sure that each hurt, sick and wounded person who walked through the doors of the emergency room received first-rate care, and she was always a hands-on nurse.  Those who spoke about her during the ceremony and had worked alongside her over many years testified to the skilled and hardworking nurse she was and the legacy she passed on to her children.  

All of the Edwards’ children are servants, both professionally and at heart. The values and standards that Frank and Dora Jean Edwards set by giving back and sharing with others have been passed down to their children and grandchildren. John Bel and I leave office in a few weeks, but we will continue giving back and serving the people of our great state. Of course, it will be in a much different manner, but we do plan to continue giving back and doing our best to lift others up. We also want to pass along these values of sharing and offering kindness to others to our own children.

During this week of Thanksgiving, I give thanks for you, our friends and family who have supported us, prayed for us, and encouraged us over the last nearly eight years we have been in office.  We are forever thankful for your goodness. God has blessed us with these amazing opportunities, and we are grateful. 

Friend, we are in the home stretch with less than 50 days left in office. Our time has been filled with amazing memories, both sad, happy and some that are truly unforgettable. We have walked and shared many triumphs and trials with you all in our state. The trials have included hurricanes, tornados, shootings, historic flooding, the COVID-19 pandemic, drought, wildfires and more. Equally, some of the triumphs have included helping to establish Louisiana Fosters and setting record rates of adoptions with nearly 6,000 since 2016, John Bel adopting Medicaid expansion allowing hundreds of thousands to access medical coverage for the first time and keeping all of our rural hospitals open.  Louisiana has set record low employment rates with the most recent of 3.3 %, lower than the current national rate. We have made significant investments in early childhood education; $5,300 in pay raises for teachers and support personnel; made historic investments in higher education; implemented tougher laws and policies to address the prevention of human trafficking; and helped launch Metanoia House to help survivors. Thanks to John Bel’s smart and responsible budgeting, the state has been consistently producing surpluses, and he is leaving the state with more than $3 billion in savings accounts after inheriting a $2 billion dollar deficit when he was first elected.   

We began our time in the Governor’s Mansion with our three children in school. Our oldest, Samantha, was working on her master’s degree at SLU in Hammond, Sarah Ellen was a freshman at LSU, and John Miller was an eighth grader starting UHS in Baton Rouge.  We end our time with Samantha married to Jonathan Ricau and now expecting our first granddaughter, Sarah Ellen married to Christopher Bates and living in Washington, DC and John Miller completing his last semester at LSU. 

John Bel and I lost my daddy and his mom; we have celebrated our 50th birthdays, our 34th wedding anniversary and shared many celebrations with family and friends. We have traveled the entire state meeting amazing people and making new friends.  I went duck hunting for the first time and shot my first duck, a mallard.  For the record, I like the temperature to be in the 50’s, no rain and not too windy. Otherwise, I would rather stay at the camp and drink coffee by the fire. Anyone who knows my husband knows he is a hunter of all seasons and all game in any weather. I do try to embrace his love of the hunt, but I digress. 

Below is a video of the song, The Bones by Maren Morris. Two of my favorite lines are, “When the bones are good, the rest don’t matter…The house don’t fall when the bones are good.”  

John Bel and I count it a blessing to have been raised in homes filled with good bones. We were raised in homes filled with God, prayer, love, and most importantly encouragement. Our parents taught us compassion and the importance of forgiveness. Homes where family was valued and were places of refuge where arms were always ready to hug, to hold or to carry you, if needed.

As we journey on, we are bittersweet about leaving, and we are waiting patiently for God to open the door to the next chapter of our life. We also ask for your prayers as we step out in faith to the next path.

Below are the lyrics to The Bones.  Please read the words and then enjoy the video that Kayla, my amazing assistant, put together.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love you all,