Florists Wendy Elsasser and Keith Fulghum retreated with twelve others to Fulghum’s home on Capitol Hill, stopping at the Department of Justice to borrow a wheelchair for a staff member recovering from surgery.
Hamilton’s kindness. She said she could walk the 3 miles to her home but he insisted on taking her. “He wanted us all to stay together as a group and get everybody to where they needed to go safely. And that was all. But I just think that everybody from the Residence was so thoughtful that day and, you know, compassionate. I didn’t see anybody panic.” People remembered these kindnesses. Betty Monkman gave Christine Limerick a $20 bill when she realized Limerick did not have time to grab her purse. From that day on, Limerick always kept a credit card and $20 with her White House identification badge. Florists Wendy Elsasser and Keith Fulghum gathered other Residence staff as they walked. “Anywhere Keith and I went,” said Elsasser, “one of us would say, ‘Do you need to come with us?
Are you okay? Are you with anybody?’” Fulghum described the 5 miles that he, Elsasser, and twelve others walked to his home on Capitol Hill as “The Long Walk.” “We were just thinking, ‘We’ve got to find a place to go where we can all be together, and then we’ll figure out what we’re going to do from there.’” Housekeeper Anita Costello had recently undergone leg surgery and could not walk well so Fulghum borrowed a wheelchair from the Department of Justice. “I just went in and said, ‘I work at the White House. We have a lady that has hurt her leg, and we need a wheelchair. Is there a possibility of borrowing one? You can have my pass [White House identification badge].’ They said, ‘We don’t want your pass. Your word’s good enough that you’ll bring it back. Just bring us our wheelchair back when you’re through.’ I said, ‘Fine.’”
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