Tragedy recently struck the Obama family, as former First Lady Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, passed away at the age of 86. Michelle made the announcement last week in an Instagram post commemorating her mother’s life.
“My mom Marian Robinson was my rock, always there for whatever I needed. She was the same steady backstop for our entire family, and we are heartbroken to share she passed away today,” the post read. “We wanted to offer some reflections on her remarkable life,” it added showcasing several pictures of Marian.
The Obamas praised Robinson as being full of “wisdom,” complimenting her “nonjudgemental” nature. They claimed she possessed a “deep understanding that the world’s roughest edges could always be sanded down with a little grace.”
Robinson grew up in a large family of seven children on the South Side of Chicago. She illustrated that her father would “wake the kids up at sunrise by blasting jazz records as an alarm clock,” so she “learned early that even in the face of hardship, there was music to be found.”
Michelle illustrated her mother’s character and integrity noting how she was an active member of the community and raised her children to be upstanding members of society. She “taught her children to read at an early age,” and gave them the “strength and confidence to walk to school — and out into the world — all on their own.”
One story was told of Robinson where, “She once chewed out a police officer who had accused Craig of stealing a bike, demanding that the adult apologize to her son.” The family added that she and her husband, Fraser Robinson, would always “hold court at the dinner table,” teaching the children “to believe in the power and worth of their voices.”
In the days of Obama’s presidency, the family noted how Robinson played in integral role in supporting the family through the experience. “With a healthy nudge, she agreed to move to the White House with Michelle and Barack. We needed her. The girls needed her. And she ended up being our rock through it all. She relished her role as a grandmother to Malia and Sasha,” they said.
“Marian Lois Shields Robinson — our mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother — had a way of summing up the truths about life in a word or two, maybe a quick phrase that made everyone around her stop and think. Her wisdom came off as almost innate, as something she was born with, but in reality it was hard-earned, fashioned by her deep understanding that the world’s roughest edges could always be sanded down with a little grace,” the family added.
“We are comforted by the understanding that she has returned to the embrace of her loving Fraser, that she’s pulled up her TV tray next to his recliner, that they’re clinking their highball glasses as she’s catching him up with the stories about this wild, beautiful ride. She’s missed him so,” the Obamas continued. “In our sadness, we are lifted up by the extraordinary gift of her life. And we will spend the rest of ours trying to live up to her example.”
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