As the nation mourned and remembered George H.W. Bush on Wednesday, Seymour resident Cindy Terkhorn shared her experience meeting the 41st president.

Terkhorn said she was at the “right place at the right time” in history when she met Bush and his wife, Barbara, at as many as six or seven political functions while she lived in Newport Beach, California, in the late 1980s.

Meeting President Bush is something she will never forget, she said.

It also was a surreal experience, she said.

“You don’t realize it when you’re in that moment how you are standing in the presence of history in the making,” she said. “This is a world leader, and you are standing and touching a world leader who is making amazing, history-altering decisions.”

Bush was elected president in 1988 after serving as President Ronald Reagan’s vice president from 1981 to 1989. He was the first president elected after serving as vice president since Martin Van Buren’s election in 1836.

Now that he is gone, Terkhorn cherishes the memories of her encounters with Bush.

“I just feel very fortunate that I actually got to talk with him,” she said with emotion.

She spent Wednesday watching Bush’s state funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

All living presidents gathered with the Bush family, including Bush’s son, George W. Bush, the country’s 43rd president. Other current and former U.S. officials and foreign leaders also paid their respects to the World War II hero.

Terkhorn experienced a number of emotions as she watched the funeral on television.

“It was very sad because we’ve lost an incredible person,” she said. “There were a lot of tears, and they are an amazing, classy family.”

Over the course of meeting the two — who were known as a close, loving couple — Terkhorn was able to spend more time with Barbara Bush. She sat next to the first lady during a dinner once where they struck up conversations about the political trail, Bush’s grandchildren and other topics.

“She would have lovely conversations,” she said. “She said President Jimmy Carter had brought barn wood into the White House that they had taken out.”

Then there was the time in 1988 when Terkhorn’s daughter was born and she received a hand-signed letter from Barbara Bush congratulating her.

“It was a beautiful letter,” she said. “That shows you the kindness and the kind of people they were.”

She remembers the Bushes as gracious people.

“I would have to say he would be because he was a great man,” Terkhorn said. “When you step back and think about what this man did, it’s just mind-boggling to think about how his life came to be.”

Terkhorn also has met President Ronald Reagan.