The Sugarbaker Household

Congresswoman Sugarbaker credits much of her personal happiness and success to her happy home life. Her family, however, is not typical of the accepted political image.

The five-time-married and recently widowed Sugarbaker shares her home with her young adopted daughter, mentally-challenged brother and her childhood mammy-turned-housekeeper.

The Congresswoman's pride and joy is her beautiful daughter Desiree. Adopted by Sugarbaker at a very young age, little Desi is the center of her mother's life and the one thing that really grounds her. The six year old girl dreams of being an actress, and Suzanne never misses her school plays.

Desi sleeps on a bed shaped like a cloud and has a very close relationship with her mother, who sits hours helping with her homework and tells her bedtime stories every night -- often sneaking a quarter under her pillow. "I like to leave little surprises around for her, not for any particular reason," says Sugarbaker. "Just because I love her."

Brother Jim Sugarbaker also lives with the Congresswoman. For several years, Jim was non-existent in her life. "Honestly, I didn't even know about him until recently. I was as surprised as anyone, but my family always had their eccentricities."

After discovering her mentally handicapped brother, Suzanne was quick to bring him into her home. "My other brother goes around the country cracking jokes about his time in a mental institution, so I figured that we have no shame," she jokes. "No, I love Jim, and that's what counts."

Her brother does make an interesting addition to the household. "Jim is such a help. He never forgets a date -- the man is a human calendar." She also goes on to say that Jim prefers the term retarded over being called developmentally-challenged. "We think it's a heck of a lot harder to be retarded." Plus, Jim also likes to shine shoes and shines everyone's shoes and leaves them outside their doors every morning.

When the Congresswoman decided to accept the President's initial invitation to go jogging, she and Jim came up with a rather unusual plan. "Y'see, I don't jog. I have enough going on just when I walk. If I jog, I could take out a couple of Secret Service Agents or something," laughs Sugarbaker. In a rather unusual move, Jim peddled a bicycle with a sidecar so that she could ride alongside the President as he was jogging -- another thing for the Washington press to eat up.

Rounding out Sugarbaker's "family" is Sapphire Jones, the Congresswoman's life-long housekeeper. There were several years that Sapphire was not working for Suzanne in Atlanta, but having taken care of her as a child, Sapphire was apparently drawn back with the addition of little Desiree to the family.

The old stereotype of the Congresswoman having a black maid named Sapphire concerned some of her staff, but Suzanne wasn't swayed. "I don't care what it looks like," Sugarbaker chuckles. "Sapphire's her name, and she's too old to change it now!" Though Sapphire often makes sarcastic remarks regarding her employer, the two do continue to share a unique bond that thrives to this day.

Sugarbaker's home may be unconventional by Washington standards, but after staying a short while in the Sugarbaker home, the Congresswoman's Press Secretary, Sissy Emerson, had this to say in a recent editorial for the Post: "When I was growing up, my mother drank and my father worked two jobs. Maybe I never knew what a real home was. Maybe I still don't. But thanks to my friend, I do know a place where the children are sweeter than jam cake, where people sleep on clouds at night, wake up with quarters under their pillows and get their shoes polished for free. And that, for now, is close enough for me."