A Conversation With Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Minority Leader

I have five grandchildren. My husband always says that he'd like to time my speeches to see how long it takes for me to mention my grandchildren. He knows it's going to be there. It's just a question of how soon. They live in Texas and Arizona, which is wonderful for them but a little far for us. My husband and I prayed for grandchildren; we not only prayed, we begged. It was not a pretty sight. But we forgot to pray that they live in California.

The day that I was nominated [for House speaker in 2003] -- when you're leader, you're nominated on the floor as leader, and so they call a name. They'll say, "Jack Murtha." And he'll say, "Pelosi." In other words, you say who you're for for speaker. So my grandchildren were sitting on my lap and next to me, and they kept hearing, "Pelosi!" "Hastert!" "Pelosi!" "Hastert!" So my youngest one, who at the time was 2 1/2, he decided that he was going to call out "Hastert!" every chance he got. I told the speaker. I said, "My grandson gave you a few votes."

I only had one grandmother, and it was a completely different situation. My grandmother was lovely, but she was sort of venerated on her shrine as grandmother and always beautifully dressed and wasn't really going around on the floor playing blocks or anything like that. She was a beautiful Italian American queen. My mother had a very close, day-to-day personal relationship with my children and her other grandchildren. She was really more my model. You have a different relationship with each of them. That's what I learned from my mother. But it is all that they say that it is. It is the greatest thing.

Somebody asked me recently, "If you had to choose anybody that you would want to ride cross-country with, who would you choose?" And I said, "Somebody who wants to hear about my grandchildren the whole way."

Interview by Cathy Areu