Obama's Sister: An E-Mail on Her Brother and Grandmother

[Faygo Kid]

Source: Yahoo News

Barack Obama's sister has not emerged in public since the death of their grandmother two days before her brother's historic presidential election, but in a post-election e-mail to close friends, Maya Soetoro-Ng said, "I wept tears of joy for all of us on Tuesday. He may not be a perfect man. Certainly, he has often said that he'll likely be an imperfect President, but he is a good man, a smart man, a disciplined soul who balances temperance with determination and courage. We've made a great choice, I assure you."

Their maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, died two days before the Nov. 4 presidential election in the two-bedroom, 10-story apartment where Dunham raised Obama. The e-mail was shared with this reporter (and with the daily Honolulu Advertiser). (See pictures of Barack Obama's family tree.)

In the final run-up to Election Day, Obama abruptly changed his campaign schedule to fly home and visit Dunham, who was dying of cancer at the age of 86. After her death was announced on Election Day eve, he spoke movingly of her at a final campaign appearance, tears streaming down his face. Services for Dunham have not been announced, and the Honolulu mortuary handling the arrangements, Borthwick Mortuary, has not returned phone calls. Obama's campaign, however, says he will return home to Honolulu sometime in December, prior to his Jan. 20 Inauguration 5,100 miles away in the nation's capitol. (See pictures of Obama's victory celebration in Chicago.)

During a family vacation in August, Obama brought his family to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, which overlooks the apartment where he grew up. Obama and his children left two leis at niche No. 440, where the ashes of his grandfather Stanley Dunham are in an urn behind a bronze plaque. Stanley Dunham was an Army sergeant in World War II; he died of prostate cancer in 1992. Officials at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific have since been contacted by Borthwick Mortuary about holding a service for Madelyn Dunham, says Gene Castagnetti, the cemetery's director. Stanley Dunham's niche is large enough to hold another urn. If the family decides on that arrangement, Sergeant Dunham's bronze plaque covering the niche would be removed and replaced with another that would include his wife's name, birthday and date of death. . .

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/obamassisteranemailonherbrotherandgrandmother

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Worth the full read.

A lovely story of a unique family.

As are all families.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. A lot of love in that family..

[iamjoy]

2. She Could Be "Wickedly Funny"

"When she (Dunham) saw the number of flowers that had been sent to her," Soetoro-Ng writes, "she said, 'Oh my ... with all of this hullabaloo, it's going to be embarrassing if I DON'T die.' I gave her a chuckle and of course told her that I wouldn't at all mind such an embarrassment..."

[Raschel]

3. He looks so different there. I would have NEVER looked at him and guessed he had such an

important road ahead of him.

He looks like an average rough and tumble boy happy boy. He doesn't look like the intellectual, slim kind of nerdy person that he is now.

[UpInArms]

4. I remember when my grandmother died, twenty-four years ago

and knowing that the person who really loved me the best, the most clearly - was gone.

I hope that Barack Obama knows how much he really is loved by his grandmother and that will never leave him.

I hope that the weight of the world does not drown him and that he remains strong for himself and all of us.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. K&R