New psychologytoday.com post: President’s daughter writes about grief

In an essay called “An Awkward Kind of Grief,” Patti Davis, the daughter of President Ronald Reagan, reflected upon the recent death of her half-brother, Michael Reagan—someone she barely knew.

The two had the same father, but a strained and distant relationship. Patti’s mother, Nancy Reagan, kept the children from her husband’s first marriage at arm’s length from the children she shared with Reagan. As adults, half-siblings Michael and Patti were further divided by their opposing political views, clashing over such matters as abortion rights, same-sex marriage, and gun issues. As Davis wrote in her essay: “The Reagan family has always lived on fractured earth, wide gullies and uncrossable rivers between us.”