(NewsNation) — As mourners gather Wednesday to celebrate the life and accomplishments of the late Madeleine Albright, a very special group will act as pallbearers during her funeral.
It is typically family who act as pallbearers for their loved one, but at Albright’s request, members of her former security detail will escort her casket at the Washington National Cathedral.
“It was the closest thing to immediate family,” former diplomatic service officer Steve Smith said of his time serving on Albright’s security team.
Former diplomatic service officer Todd Keil remembers Albright saying “‘I’ve made the decision to welcome you into my family,”
Albright, 84, died of cancer last month, prompting an outpouring of condolences from around the world.
Not only did members of Albright’s security detail get a front-row seat to history, they also got to know her on a personal level that very few people ever got to see.
“I’d worked with other dignitaries, often many of them would look right through you,” Former diplomatic service officer George Gilchrist said. “You were security. Very few treated us like she treated us.”
Albright “treated us like one of her own” and fostered a special relationship with her security detail. She came to love them like children, honoring them in death by choosing them to be pallbearers.
Former diplomatic service officer Tom Gallagher remembers Albright being “genuine in terms of the interaction she’d have with all of us, spending a lot of time with her.”
This group is a family even if not by blood.
For former diplomatic service officer Todd Keil, it was the time Albright spent on them that was special.
“We all were there in the room when she went toe to toe with dictators, tyrants and despots,” Keil said. “She would leave that room and she would turn to the agents and say ‘Isn’t it your birthday today?'”
Albright was a child refugee from war-torn Europe who rose to become America’s first female secretary of state.
She was hailed for her support for democracy and human rights and known for being smart and tough on the world stage.
Whether it was mass graves in Kosovo or peace talks in the West Bank, she always insisted on being in the middle of the action.
But to those whose job it was to protect her, she developed a closeness they describe as almost motherly.
“How’d our day go? How’d you do today? Was everything OK? Did you get fed?” Former diplomatic service officer Tom Grey said. “She cared. She really, really cared.”
Former diplomatic service officer Steve Smith fondly remembers, “My daughter’s claim to fame is that she sold the secretary of state Girl Scout cookies.”
When Albright died last month, the world said goodbye to a glass ceiling-shattering icon.
But for this special group, it was deeper. They lost someone they truly loved.
When they learned Albright specifically wanted them to carry her casket, they said, “It’s truly an honor, truly an honor.”
“I could’ve been halfway around the world, I would’ve came back to do that,” one security team member said.
As the nation bids farewell to one of its finest, it is important to put politics aside and celebrate that we are all humans.
And for this special group of men, it is one final goodbye and one final call to service.
Watch the full interview with Madeleine Albright’s pallbearers in the video at the top of the page.