It was just a little bit over a year ago, right around Christmas time.

Actually, I swore I'd never do a book unless it was a great mystery novel. And some members of my board suggested it to me, and I thought about it,...

Actually it was a wonderful exercise in going back through your life. Life gets so hectic day in and day out, going from one thing to another. The last...

It was just over two years ago, March 7 two years ago.

Small -- non-small-cell lung cancer.

Yes, it was caused by years of smoking.

I think I'm in marvelous shape. I feel great. They've been -- parts of them have been hard, a lot's been exhilarating, and a lot has been very inspirational...

So I had a very easy time through the chemo and the radiation therapy. I was very upbeat. The cancer center that I went to was wonderful and upbeat....

And then went on a trial drug, a very famous one that is probably soon to be OK'd by the FDA, called Orissa (ph), and was on that for seven months until...

You tell us in the book that your dad died at about your age...

... of cancer from smoking.

Now, have you stopped smoking?

And then you wean yourself off that with the nicotine addiction, and along with this drug, which takes away the anxiety, this time I'm hopeful it'll...

This is my real hair. It's very strange-looking right now. It all came in curly and very, very dark. And so it's beginning to straighten out a little,...

How do you compare your own personal experience with cancer with what you went through after your husband was shot?

That was harder for me in the long run. That was -- it's now been 21 years, and it's a never-ending process. We were very fortunate Jim lived. He had...

Where do you live today?

Now, what's been the impact on Jim Brady from your -- about your illness?

And how's he doing?

What's he do on a day-to-day basis?

He has a train simulator, and he loves to study -- to get on there and pretend like he's riding a -- driving the train.

Oh, that's April Parker. That's a friend of Scott's who was with us on Thanksgiving last -- a year ago last Thanksgiving.

He's 23 now, and one of the greatest blessings, he's going to be with us all this winter. He's bought property and is building a log cabin south of...

Couple things that jumped out in the book, one is a fear of driving. And I want you to tell us why. And a fear of flying. What about driving? Still...

It was the one -- especially when Scott was in the car, I got nervous about driving across the 14th Street Bridge. So I would take Memorial Bridge because...

Oh, yes.

Oh, yes, I used to -- we used to love to go down and get vegetables down at RFK, fresh vegetables, but would just -- it would have taken 15 minutes...

When did the fear of flying begin? And do you still have that?

But then the driving became OK. I transferred it from cars to airplanes. And I think I'd like to transfer it on to camel riding.

That's me when I was 3, up in Buffalo with my Lambie Pie, my little lamb.

Oh, they were wonderful. I think I had the neatest, most wonderful home life. My dad was an FBI agent, or he became an FBI agent right after I was born....

But everybody just ran out, and I wasn't sure what it was all about, but I knew that it was wonderful news, and a lot of flag-waving and kissing and...

Prior to that, we had lived in Newark, New Jersey, and in Norfolk, Virginia. But after Buffalo, after the war, then we were transferred to Washington,...

College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. Lived in Virginia from the time I was 7 on.

Bill and Mary. Says it's not a 4-year accredited college.

Oh, we came in '47, my family did, and that's where I grew up. My dad was transferred in the bureau back to headquarters in Washington.

I think I always had been. My parents were both very interested in it, although not politicians themselves, the news was always on, discussions of politics....

And then in the '60s, I really got a -- really interested in issues, and, I mean, that was the time everybody became involved. I mean, it was -- you...

Well, my very first one, actually, was even before I got real involved, was in 1960, when I worked up on the Hill for a Republican member of Congress....

His name was Walter Norblad. He was from the first district of -- in Oregon. And it was a wonderful -- I mean, I enjoyed the job thoroughly. I was the...

And then I saw John Kennedy give his first State of the Union message, and that was a wonderful thing to be able to see.

Met Jim at a Republican National Committee cocktail party. That was much later, when I was actually working for the Republican Congressional Campaign...

My brother and my mom and me, and Missy, Jim's daughter, Missy. He -- Jim had been married in college for several years. By the time I met him, he was...

Seventy-three, 1973. Jim had been working in Chicago representing several Republican members who were running for Congress, and my office at the Congressional...

You worked for Congressman Mike McDivot of -- McKevitt...

Not McDivot, McKevitt, of Colorado, for one term. And then you went to work for a fellow from New Jersey.

And you tell this story in here about Joe Meresidi (ph). What it -- what's the story?

And he was the most friendly, grandfatherly -- of course, I was young, so he seemed grandfatherly. He was really just without years older than I am...

But after a while, we started realizing that -- and I would not tell this except it's all public record, and during those years I didn't tell it. We...

But then it went even further. The next year he put her on our payroll under an assumed name. It was a previous name. She had been married before. And...

And finally the press heard that some things were going on, and they came -- they called, and Joe Meresidi (ph) -- what a character he was -- he said...

And he never did show back up at -- this was maybe August before the election, it was right in the middle of Watergate. He was on the Watergate -- the...

What happened to him?

Is he alive today?

Do you remember this picture?

Where was it?

That would have been what date, you remember?

After the 20th?

Right after the 20th?

So you literally move two months ahead to March 30th, 1981. Where were you when you first heard that Jim had been shot?

And I didn't think too much of it, because I thought, Well, Jim wouldn't be there. And they did say, "Apparently the president was unhurt."

So I hung up and called the White House to verify that he had been hit. And then things just went so quickly. I left within 15 minutes to go over to...

Do you remember how you handled it all, I mean, in your own head, at the time? I mean, how did you get through what -- was -- what, November, he was...

And then Jim was just amazing. They never even dreamed he would wake up right away after the operation. The doctor, when he -- when the five-hour operation...

Why does he call you Raccoon?

When did he start calling you that?

Did it endear you to him?

What do you call him?

Where did that come from?

Does Scott, your son, have a name, an animal name?

Now, this man has played a big role in your life.

He had a grand malseizure.

And head injuries very often, almost with most head-injured people, severe, you get seizures afterwards. So you -- they put you on an antiseizure medication...

But during that process, he shook loose something in the brain that allowed spinal fluid to begin dripping from his brain down through his nose, meaning...

Oh, it has to be in the -- I would imagine 500 -- between 500 and 1,000, at least.

Usually I touch, I touch on Jim, I touch on how things happened, never in total detail, because I like to make my speeches normally fairly light and...

What I was leading to is that I know you often have an answer -- question and answer period. What's the questions that are always asked of you, by every...

What about your husband's episode and all that? What do they ask you about that?

And you have a chapter in here about, "I Hate John Hinckley." What's that story?

And although it's joyous and wonderful to get them home, life then, all of a sudden the trauma part's over, the adrenaline isn't there any more, and...

I said, "Well, honey" -- because we had tried not to impart any of those kind of feelings -- "why? I know it's a terrible thing he did, but we don't...

What was the reaction from the Reagan family after all this? And here's a picture of you taken when?

I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful both Reagans were to us and our family. Nancy was absolutely amazing, right from the very beginning, she'd...

In fact, one of our favorite ones was when we had gone down to Camp Hoover, Jim and I and some friends, and this isn't even in the book, I have so many...

And it's -- some presidents have used it very much like Camp David, but not in recent years. There's no telephone there. It's a marvelous big old house...

And another, another car, and it was the park rangers coming down to say, President Reagan has called and wants to talk to Mr. Brady, so we're here...

So he was there with his rum and tonic riding up the side of the mountain in an ambulance, which he really didn't need, and I rode in with him. And...

Well, she -- yes, she sends cards or a letter.

We've done fine. I went back to work toward the end of the '80s, so I worked all those -- I've been working all these years. Jim has, I mean, a government...

Oh, absolutely. Both Jim and I think -- are proud people, I think they've been very good to us. We -- I mean, we do get what everybody else -- actually...

No, I haven't had anything like that in a long time. There was a foundation, the Brady Foundation, which was really organized -- I think the brains...

Yes, it's nothing special had been set up. And the purpose of it is pretty much that if there are any special needs, like Jim has -- normally needs...

It was an awful experience.

Another one of those setbacks. It was back in the mid-'90s. It's been doing beautifully. We were up there to get an award.

New York, in a hotel, going to get up the next morning. We'd just been to dinner. And Jim, when he walks, always edges along the side of a wall, just...

And we got him to the emergency room, and they X-rayed and they put him through everything, CAT scans, X-rays. And he didn't hurt himself seriously...

Then what was really horrible about that, this led to the next thing that kind of happened. He had to have -- we decided rather than getting a whole...

But the heart had not suffered any damage, and it was -- it had not been a heart attack. It was a reaction, not an allergic reaction, but an overreaction...

You had to call Scott into town because you didn't think he was going to live.

Any of that -- does he have any of that kind of a problem today? Seizures and...

How old is Jim Brady today?

In addition to Jim Brady and all the problems he's had for the last 20 years, and your cancer, you tell the story about Scott and his education. How...

And in those days, it was very difficult. That's been a long time ago, and things have changed a lot, in that there were not -- the public schools were...

But what I learned from this, and what's now very prevalent, is people -- oh, there's so much more written. But there are educational specialists who...

He's how old?

Did he get a college degree?

We're all very fast-paced, impatient people. But Scott knew himself well enough to know he wasn't ready. I didn't when I went to college, and I didn't...

The Brady Bill passed what year?

Which president?

How many years did you work for handgun control?

After all this experience, do you still call yourself a Republican?

Where is this picture?

In the book, though, you tell us about some people you don't like too much. You call Senator Phil Gramm arrogant. Why?

What would the Brady Bill do?

You say in trying to get this passed that Dick Cheney wasn't very helpful to you, wouldn't return your phone calls.

And, I mean, it was -- that's kind of a no-brainer. In fact, only four people in the House of Representatives voted against it, and Dick Cheney was...

No. And who I had thought and hoped and was...

Only president alive. Ford, Nixon, Reagan...

... Carter, Clinton.

He in Texas supported a concealed weapon bill and signed it into law, allowing people to carry concealed weapons, literally practically everywhere,...

What's the story about when you called the NRA?

First time?

Centralia, Illinois.

And I said, "Scott." And I took it from him. I said, "You don't even point a toy gun at anyone." And then I realized it was not a toy gun, it was a...

So when we back -- went back to Washington, I happened to hear within the next night or two -- it was in August -- that the NRA was pushing for a bill...

And the next day I called Charlie Orrison (ph) at Handgun Control and said, "Can I help?" And then that was the beginning.

At the convention -- at a convention for Ronald Reagan, the second convention.

In '84, in one of the little holding rooms. He was going to be doing the Pledge of Allegiance, or -- And we were there just because the -- of making...

Well, I just thought he was rather funny and peculiar, and that he talked -- he didn't sit and talk like a normal person, he sort of talked like he...

No, we ran into him out in California. Nancy Reagan had -- she had the Reagan -- Nancy Reagan Foundation, and she gave awards. And she gave one to our...

The picture on the cover of the book is what year?

We're out of time. It's called "A Good Fight." Sarah Brady is the author. Thank you very much for joining us.