Word: dunhams
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...some families, the person who makes everything possible is the one who stands still. Barack Obama's grandmother Madelyn Dunham, who died on Nov. 3 at 86, was married to a man fueled by bluster and possibility, who moved the family five times before settling in Hawaii. Her daughter inherited that restlessness, marrying an African, then an Indonesian and building a life in Jakarta. And then there was the grandson who captured a nation's imagination...
...long presidential campaign turned out to be a bittersweet one for Barack Obama, as he learned that the white grandmother who had helped raise him had died in her sleep, and would not live to see whether her grandson would become the nation's first African-American president. Madelyn Dunham "was one of those quiet heroes that we have all across America," Obama told supporters on a rain-sodden field at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. "They aren't seeking the limelight. All they're trying to do is do the right thing." As Obama spoke, tears rolled...
...unscheduled stop of the day, less than an hour after Dunham's death had been announced, Obama popped into his campaign office in Charlotte and made a few phone calls to uncommitted voters. He did not mention his grandmother to the campaign volunteers there, who were stunned and thrilled at his arrival. But his upbeat mood suddenly changed in the middle of one of the telephone calls, when the voter to whom he was talking brought up the subject of home health care for the elderly...
...Dunham, Obama wrote in Dreams, was motivated by "the needs of her grandchildren and the stoicism of her ancestors." "So long as you kids do well, Bar," she would tell him, "that's all that really matters...
...This time, he did not make the same mistake. Since February 2007, as Obama pursued his presidential dream, Dunham watched her grandson on TV from her apartment. This fall, she cast her ballot for him, in early, absentee voting. And two weeks ago, for two precious days, he got to thank her in person for helping make him what he is and could...