patch | Melania Trump recently "found her voice" in stay-at-home America, the Washington Post's style-section
declared, citing the first lady's recent tweets praising grocery
workers and public service announcements promoting the CDC's public
health guidance.
Former first lady Michelle Obama teamed up with Washington D.C. Mayor
Muriel Bowser to spread the word about free public coronavirus testing
sites around the district, where she's self-quarantining with former President Barack Obama and their daughters.
But in Illinois, we haven't heard much from first lady M.K. Pritzker,
except early this month when she signed on to help raise money for Art for Illinois relief program.
In
Crain's Chicago Business columnist Greg Hinz's day-in-the life tale of
Illinois' rookie governor amid the pandemic, we learned Pritzker watched
"Tiger King" on Netflix, a how he usually ends his day — "a little
dinner, then he chats with his son and makes more calls" — but nothing
of the first lady or his daughter.
The governor didn't mention
his wife when reporters asked the billionaire about how he's doing
physically and emotionally under his own stay-at-home order.
"I'll
just say I'm managing through this time reasonably well," Pritzker said
on April 17. "I think there is an emotional component to this that I'll
just not spend a lot of time on."
As things turn out, as the
governor makes regular public pleas for Illinoisans to be "All In"
during the extended stay-at-home fight to slow the spread of COVID-19,
Mrs. Pritzker has been out of state, sources told Patch.
Specifically, the first lady has been spending time at their $12-million equestrian estate
in Wellington, just down the horse trail from Bruce Springsteen, Bill
Gates and Billy Joel, the family purchased shortly after J.B. was
elected governor last year.
Not that I think there's anything
wrong with that. "First lady" isn't an official title. Mrs. Pritzker can
raise cash for Illinois artists from anywhere. She has no obligation to
sequester herself in their Astor Street mansion in the Gold Coast when
her family can hop on a private plane to stay-at-home in Lake Geneva,
Wisconsin, the family estate in the Bahamas (close to the governor's off-shore bank accounts) and, of course, their place in the "winter equestrian capital of the world" in Florida.
