For the past twelve months Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has been watching her grandson from afar, glued to a television screen in Hawaii. She can't travel so she had a corneal transplant in order to glue herself to CNN to watch as her grandson makes history. Now Obama is back in Hawaii visiting his gravely ill grandmother, and it may be his last time to say goodbye.
It is unusual for a presidential candidate to leave the campaign trail only eleven days before the election, but Obama said that his trip was non-negotiable. He had missed his chance to say goodbye to his mother in 1995 and did not want to make the same mistake with his grandmother, who remains a main fixture in his life.
Obama's grandmother, whom he calls "Toot" short for Tutu - grandma in Hawaiian - played an integral part in his campaign with her American roots. She worked on B-29s in Wichita while her husband fought in World War II.
“My grandparents held on to a simple dream, that they would raise my mother in a land of boundless dreams,” Mr. Obama said. “I am standing here today because that dream was realized.”
In August, as Mr. Obama prepared to accept the Democratic nomination, he delivered a long-distance message to his grandmother in a televised speech.
“Thank you to my grandmother, who helped raise me and is sitting in Hawaii somewhere right now because she can’t travel, but who poured everything she had into me and who helped to make me the man I am today,” Mr. Obama said. “Tonight is for her.”
We wish the Obama family and friends well, and hope to see "Toot" live to see her grandson in the White House.
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