Obama visits his grandmother, perhaps for last time
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., steps off the plane to visit his ailing grandmother, in Honolulu Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)Obama visits grandmother, perhaps for last time
HONOLULU – Barack Obama left the campaign trail Thursday to visit his ailing grandmother, perhaps for the last time.
Although it's a crucial period in the presidential race, the Democratic candidate said he is making time for the visit because he doesn't want to risk his grandmother dying before he has a chance to say goodbye — something that happened when his mother succumbed to cancer.
"I want to make sure that I don't make the same mistake twice," he said in an interview on CBS' "The Early Show."
The campaign has not discussed Madelyn Dunham's health in detail, but the 85-year-old woman is said to be gravely ill after falling and breaking her hip. Dunham, whose birthday is Sunday, was recently released from the hospital.
At a rally Thursday in Indianapolis, a minister asked the crowd to pray for Dunham as a "source of comfort, healing and courage." And in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," Obama said his grandmother "has been inundated with phone calls and e-mails and flowers from total strangers."
"And so maybe she is getting a sense of, of long-deserved recognition at — towards the end of her life," Obama said.
Obama was born in Hawaii. His Kansas-born mother and Kenyan father met as college students there, but Dunham and her husband, Stanley, raised Obama for extended periods when his mother lived overseas.
In his memoir "Dreams from My Father," Obama described his grandfather as something of a dreamer. It was his grandmother who was practical enough to support the family by working her way up in the ranks at a local bank.
He has often mentioned "Toot" — his version of the Hawaiian word "tutu," or grandparent — as an example of a strong woman succeeding through intelligence and determination. Many of his speeches describe her working on a bomber assembly line during World War II.
Obama said the decision to go to Hawaii was easy to make, telling CBS that he "got there too late" when his mother died of ovarian cancer in 1995 at age 53.
"My grandmother's the last one left," he said. "She has really been the rock of the family, the foundation of the family."
Obama planned to meet with his grandmother Thursday night and Friday before returning to active campaigning in Nevada on Saturday.
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This photo provided by the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shows Obama in 1979 during his high school graduation in Hawaii with his grandmother Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham. Sen. Obama is canceling nearly all his campaign events Thursday and Friday Oct 23 and 24, 2008 to fly to Hawaii to visit his suddenly gravely ill 85-year-old grandmother, a spokesman said Monday, Oct. 20, 2008.
(AP Photo/Obama Presidential Campaign)
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