How Late Granny Raised My Father, Barack Obama Laments Death Of Grandmother

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>How late Granny raised Obama’s biological father as the former US President loses grandmother<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that Barack Obama&comma; a democrat and the 44th President of the United States of America has lost his Kenyan grandmother&comma; Sarah Ogwel Onyango Obama&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Obama who&comma; just last week&comma; announced the commencement on the building of the Obama Presidential Center on the South Side of Chicago&comma; is currently in sorrow&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In a well crafted words of lamentation&comma; the former president stated that the entire family would continuously miss Sarah Obama who he described as loving and kind<br &sol;>&NewLine;Obama wrote on <strong>how<&sol;strong> late Granny raised his father&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;My family and I are mourning the loss of our beloved grandmother&comma; Sarah Ogwel Onyango Obama&comma; affectionately known to many as <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;wsj&period;com">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Mama Sarah”<&sol;a> but known to us as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Dani” or Granny&period; Born in the first quarter of the last century&comma; in Nyanza Province&comma; on the shores of Lake Victoria&comma; she had no formal schooling&comma; and in the ways of her tribe&comma; she was married off to a much older man while only a teen&period; She would spend the rest of her life in the tiny village of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchng&period;com&sol;">Alego<&sol;a>&comma; in a small home built of mud-and thatch brick and without electricity or indoor plumbing&period; There she raised eight children&comma; tended to her goats and chickens&comma; grew an assortment of crops&comma; and took what the family didn’t use to sell at the local open-air market&period;<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<em>Although not his birth mother&comma; Granny would raise my father as her own&comma; and it was in part thanks to her love and encouragement that he was able to defy the odds and do well enough in <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vanguardngr&period;com&sol;">school<&sol;a> to get a scholarship to attend an American university&period; When our family had difficulties&comma; her homestead was a refuge for her children and grandchildren&comma; and her presence was a constant&comma; stabilizing force&period; When I first traveled to Kenya to learn more about my heritage and father&comma; who had passed away by then&comma; it was Granny who served as a bridge to the past&comma; and it was her stories that helped fill a void in my heart&period;<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<em>During the course of her life&comma; Granny would witness epochal changes taking place around the globe&colon; world war&comma; liberation movements&comma; moon landings&comma; and the advent of the computer age&period; She would live to fly on jets&comma; receive visitors from around the world&comma; and see one of her grandsons get elected to the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">United States presidency<&sol;a>&period; And yet her essential spirit—strong&comma; proud&comma; hard-working&comma; unimpressed with conventional marks of status and full of common sense and good humor—never changed&period;<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<em>We will miss her dearly&comma; but celebrate with gratitude her long and remarkable life&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;