BY HEIDI EVANS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, March 15th 2008, 4:00 AM
Keivom/News
'This is a big adjustment for me,' Michelle Paige Paterson says of her new role as the state’s First Lady. 'I was used to my privacy.'
Keivom/News
Michelle Paterson with son, Alex and dog Cheerio.
Lots has changed this week for Michelle Paige Paterson.
The biggest shock for this first lady-to-be came early Tuesday, when two state troopers appeared at her Harlem apartment.
One politely explained he would now be driving her to work downtown, where she is a health administrator for the HMO HIP. The other trooper would be driving the couple's 14-year-old son, Alex, to school.
SUV. Black, tinted windows. Bodyguard? It's all a little much for this independent and down-to-earth New York woman.
"Then he came in and set up shop in the cubicle outside my office!" Paige Paterson said. "He knows when I get up and go to the bathroom. It's awful.
"I told them I'm going on vacation to see my girlfriend in Hawaii in May - 'Are you going with me there, too?'"
To her dismay, the man in the dark overcoat nodded.
"David was the one who had the state troopers with him all the time as lieutenant governor, not me," said Paige Paterson, who hasn't seen her husband since Monday. That's when he got the call that Gov. Spitzer had been linked to a prostitution ring and eventually would step down.
"This is a big adjustment for me. I was used to my privacy. "David told me, 'Enjoy, Michelle. Be the diva. You don't have a state budget to pass.'"
Resigned to her fate, she shrugged, "I guess I have to throw away my MetroCard."
In her first interview since Spitzer resigned in disgrace on Wednesday, Paige Paterson spoke to the Daily News about her trepidations of stepping into this new, most public stage.
She also talked of her mixed emotions of how it came about, her husband and marriage, and the issues she would like to bring attention to once the dust has settled.
The daughter of a retired postal worker who married into Harlem's political royalty in 1992, Paige Paterson, 46, said she is ready to do what's needed.
Asked what she would like New Yorkers to know about her, she said, "That I'm very passionate about childhood obesity. I'm kind of a shy person. I'm a devoted wife and mother."
Like her husband, she appears to be a sea of calm in a crisis.
At 5-feet-7 and with a figure every woman her age would envy, Paige Paterson is an avid runner and health nut who is admired by friends for her poise, smarts and energy.
"She is very accomplished in her own right. In fact, when I met her, I didn't know she was the wife of David. She used the last name Paige and never mentioned being the wife of an elected official," said Pam DeWees, a friend from graduate school.
"I was in awe of that, and it spoke volumes of her character and integrity. Michelle is such an inspiration to all her friends. She will make a phenomenal First Lady."
Paige said she expects the demands on her husband will intensify in the coming years and that the family may see even less of him than it does now.
She has been a political spouse for 15 years, marrying Paterson when he had already been a state senator for seven years.
She said she is still in love with the man who surprised her with a marriage proposal over the radio - telling listeners he would open the airwaves up to all callers if she did not accept on the spot; the romantic who once sent her a telegram to meet him at Cafe des Artistes on her birthday and showed up in a tuxedo with long-stemmed roses.
The couple was married on Nov 21, 1992, in Riverside Church, with 1,000 guests in attendance. "It was an event. I knew 80 of them," Paige Paterson deadpanned.
The couple has a home in Schenectady, just outside the capital, where the family often spends weekends. But Paterson spends a few days of each week in the state capital while his wife and son are in the city.
"We manage; we make it work," said Paterson, who added she will keep her job at HIP. "It's the life we know."
When told reporters asked her husband at his first press conference if he had ever been with prostitutes, she laughed. "I don't think that's David."
Asked if she worries about other women, given the time they spend apart and what happened with Spitzer, she said: "I know my husband loves me and is devoted to the family. I am not going to worry about that stuff.
"One of the things I said to David at our wedding was that I didn't just love him, I liked him. He is my best friend. I can talk to him about anything. I think he has a gift because of his disability ... He is a leader. And he leads our family."
Paige Paterson said she, like many people in her husband's life, often forget he is legally blind, seeing shadows and shapes at best. He plays basketball, has ridden his bicycle on Martha's Vineyard and plays piano and guitar.
Does she ever wish her husband could see how pretty she is?
Paige Paterson laughed.
"Well it's funny: One day when I met Jesse Jackson for the first time, he told David: 'You're not blind. You know exactly what you're doing.'"
While she looks forward to their new role as New York's First Family, hitting the political big time is bittersweet for now, given the circumstances of Spitzer's fall.
"My heart really goes out to Silda and her daughters," said Paige Paterson, who called Spitzer's wife Monday to offer her solace.
The two women made plans to have lunch in a few weeks. Silda Spitzer has told friends she wants to be helpful to Paige Paterson in the transition.
"This is all so new for me," said Paige Paterson, who is traveling to Albany tomorrow to join her husband and get ready for his swearing-in.
"I don't know what I should do just yet. I didn't have a chance to work my way into this."
hevans@nydailynews.co
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Saturday, March 15th 2008, 4:00 AM
Keivom/News
'This is a big adjustment for me,' Michelle Paige Paterson says of her new role as the state’s First Lady. 'I was used to my privacy.'
Keivom/News
Michelle Paterson with son, Alex and dog Cheerio.
Lots has changed this week for Michelle Paige Paterson.
The biggest shock for this first lady-to-be came early Tuesday, when two state troopers appeared at her Harlem apartment.
One politely explained he would now be driving her to work downtown, where she is a health administrator for the HMO HIP. The other trooper would be driving the couple's 14-year-old son, Alex, to school.
SUV. Black, tinted windows. Bodyguard? It's all a little much for this independent and down-to-earth New York woman.
"Then he came in and set up shop in the cubicle outside my office!" Paige Paterson said. "He knows when I get up and go to the bathroom. It's awful.
"I told them I'm going on vacation to see my girlfriend in Hawaii in May - 'Are you going with me there, too?'"
To her dismay, the man in the dark overcoat nodded.
"David was the one who had the state troopers with him all the time as lieutenant governor, not me," said Paige Paterson, who hasn't seen her husband since Monday. That's when he got the call that Gov. Spitzer had been linked to a prostitution ring and eventually would step down.
"This is a big adjustment for me. I was used to my privacy. "David told me, 'Enjoy, Michelle. Be the diva. You don't have a state budget to pass.'"
Resigned to her fate, she shrugged, "I guess I have to throw away my MetroCard."
In her first interview since Spitzer resigned in disgrace on Wednesday, Paige Paterson spoke to the Daily News about her trepidations of stepping into this new, most public stage.
She also talked of her mixed emotions of how it came about, her husband and marriage, and the issues she would like to bring attention to once the dust has settled.
The daughter of a retired postal worker who married into Harlem's political royalty in 1992, Paige Paterson, 46, said she is ready to do what's needed.
Asked what she would like New Yorkers to know about her, she said, "That I'm very passionate about childhood obesity. I'm kind of a shy person. I'm a devoted wife and mother."
Like her husband, she appears to be a sea of calm in a crisis.
At 5-feet-7 and with a figure every woman her age would envy, Paige Paterson is an avid runner and health nut who is admired by friends for her poise, smarts and energy.
"She is very accomplished in her own right. In fact, when I met her, I didn't know she was the wife of David. She used the last name Paige and never mentioned being the wife of an elected official," said Pam DeWees, a friend from graduate school.
"I was in awe of that, and it spoke volumes of her character and integrity. Michelle is such an inspiration to all her friends. She will make a phenomenal First Lady."
Paige said she expects the demands on her husband will intensify in the coming years and that the family may see even less of him than it does now.
She has been a political spouse for 15 years, marrying Paterson when he had already been a state senator for seven years.
She said she is still in love with the man who surprised her with a marriage proposal over the radio - telling listeners he would open the airwaves up to all callers if she did not accept on the spot; the romantic who once sent her a telegram to meet him at Cafe des Artistes on her birthday and showed up in a tuxedo with long-stemmed roses.
The couple was married on Nov 21, 1992, in Riverside Church, with 1,000 guests in attendance. "It was an event. I knew 80 of them," Paige Paterson deadpanned.
The couple has a home in Schenectady, just outside the capital, where the family often spends weekends. But Paterson spends a few days of each week in the state capital while his wife and son are in the city.
"We manage; we make it work," said Paterson, who added she will keep her job at HIP. "It's the life we know."
When told reporters asked her husband at his first press conference if he had ever been with prostitutes, she laughed. "I don't think that's David."
Asked if she worries about other women, given the time they spend apart and what happened with Spitzer, she said: "I know my husband loves me and is devoted to the family. I am not going to worry about that stuff.
"One of the things I said to David at our wedding was that I didn't just love him, I liked him. He is my best friend. I can talk to him about anything. I think he has a gift because of his disability ... He is a leader. And he leads our family."
Paige Paterson said she, like many people in her husband's life, often forget he is legally blind, seeing shadows and shapes at best. He plays basketball, has ridden his bicycle on Martha's Vineyard and plays piano and guitar.
Does she ever wish her husband could see how pretty she is?
Paige Paterson laughed.
"Well it's funny: One day when I met Jesse Jackson for the first time, he told David: 'You're not blind. You know exactly what you're doing.'"
While she looks forward to their new role as New York's First Family, hitting the political big time is bittersweet for now, given the circumstances of Spitzer's fall.
"My heart really goes out to Silda and her daughters," said Paige Paterson, who called Spitzer's wife Monday to offer her solace.
The two women made plans to have lunch in a few weeks. Silda Spitzer has told friends she wants to be helpful to Paige Paterson in the transition.
"This is all so new for me," said Paige Paterson, who is traveling to Albany tomorrow to join her husband and get ready for his swearing-in.
"I don't know what I should do just yet. I didn't have a chance to work my way into this."
hevans@nydailynews.co
