MANCHESTER, N.H.—Kelley Paul, wife of Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul, visited her husband’s New Hampshire campaign office on Wednesday.
In a meet-and-greet with her husband’s supporters, Paul shared the story of her grandmother, Julia O’Toole, whom she called the “centerpiece” of her book, “True and Constant Friends.”
“I had an opportunity to really reflect on my own family history, and its place in the American dream and the American story,” Paul said.
Her grandmother, she said, escaped “extreme poverty” in Ireland, traveling on her own to make a new life for herself.
O’Toole eventually found work as a maid, but Paul said her grandmother always made it sound “glamorous” as she told her stories about the “high society” ladies she worked for.
After a lifetime of hard work, her grandparents eventually enjoyed a comfortable retirement, and her grandmother’s friends “had no idea how hard her life had been.”
“To me, her humble story epitomizes the American dream, and really points to the guiding principles that made this the greatest country on earth,” Paul said.
According to Paul’s telling, her grandmother had a premonition of sorts about Paul’s future life in politics.
“When I was 15, my grandmother gave me a small, beaded evening purse that I prize to this day,” Paul said. “I can still remember her telling me how special that purse was … ‘I want you to have it,’ she told me, ‘because I have a feeling you’re going to take it lots of wonderful places one day.’”
Paul later took the purse to a Christmas party at the White House after her husband was elected to the Senate.
Her husband, Rand Paul, attended the grand opening of the office on Friday, where he discussed his recent battle with Senate colleagues over the government’s bulk collection of phone records.
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