"People say it gets better. No, it does not."

That's Nancy Reagan, telling Vanity Fair's Bob Colacello about how much still misses her husband, the nation's 40th president. He died in 2004.

"I miss Ronnie a lot," the nearly 88-year-old former first lady adds.

She also, according to an online preview of the piece in VF's next issue, sometimes thinks she's seeing her husband:

"It sounds strange, but ... I see Ronnie. At nighttime, if I wake up, I think Ronnie's there, and I start to talk to him. It's not important what I say. But the fact is, I do think he's there. And I see him."

The new issue is due on newsstands in New York and Los Angeles tomorrow, and across the nation next Tuesday.

Update at 3:57 p.m. ET: Nancy Reagan is at the White House right now, to watch as President Barack Obama signs the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act.

"President Reagan helped as much as any president to restore a sense of optimism to the country," President Obama just said.

The former first lady just gave the president a kiss as he finished signing the act.