I feel nice to be called the First Woman. It’s wonderful feeling and great honour to be addressed so. But 4 years hence when we rose to this position, like all other mothers, I was dreading in my heart of hearts over my daughters, wondering whether this Power could spoil my daughters ! How would I get them to the touch the ground? Taking them away from their old schools, out from their home where they were born, how would I see to it that they are kept happy in Washington was my great, great botheration.
We were happy before we came to Washington. On every Saturday we watched Foot ball match, Sunday we went to Granny’s house.In the night Barrack would take all of us out for dining or for a movie.Like all mothers who get dog tired towards the week end, I too couldn’t be awake either for dinner or for a movie, I slept.
| My father being a Pump Operator, he worked in City Water Plant and his health had failed when my brother was small. He had difficulties getting up from his bed. He went to the bathroom with a walker. He was getting ready for work very slowly having a shave for himself. By evening when he returned home, we stood at the balcony for greeting him, we waited for seeing him. When my father walked slowly and embraced me that was a heavenly experience for me!
4 years before Obama and I wondered whether we’d be able to provide good things of life to our children. Now we don’t have that worry anymore. Even today what I love most is being “Mom in Chief”. My girls (daughters) are the central part of my life. They are the |
I had got used to the usual kind of life style that we lived hitherto. I wanted to give a certain life style to my growing daughters, I liked it the way it went. So also I loved my husband very deeply who provided me the necessary support. So, when he became President, I didn’t want our life style to change completely altogether .
I liked Barrack for whatever that he did.
Old Car
From the times he was a Senator and then qualified to be a Presidential candidate during the time we courted, he used to date me in the old car which had almost rusted. The tin had given way and the road could be seen through the hole of the car ! He had only one asset with him- the table that he had bought from scrap shop. Only one pair of shoes he wore were misfitting him, tightening his legs.
When Obama told me about his parentage, I realized both of us had nothing much different, both our families had no money. We had no luxury objects of any kind.
My father being a Pump Operator, he worked in City Water Plant and his health had failed when my brother was small. He had difficulties getting up from his bed. He went to the bathroom with a walker. He was getting ready for work very slowly having a shave for himself. By evening when he returned home, we stood at the balcony to greet and waited to see him. When my father walked slowly and embraced me that was a heavenly experience for me!
Amidst all this my parents grew me seeing that my needs were met. Gave us the kind of education that we desired. Never they delayed paying fee for education even for a day. They provided education taking loans. They prided in the fact that they sent us to the college.
Barrack as Granny’s child
I came to know many things of him slowly like he studied throughout the length & breadth of the country. He grew in the care of a lonely mother. She struggled to pay the monthly bill even. His grand ma worked as a Secretary in a small bank. Every morning she ran for taking a bus to office. She didn’t complain of anything and lived with children and grand children.
Like many other families in America, our family too didn’t desire for anything more and our needs were moderately simple. We were brought up that way that we never envied anyone. We respected all the difficulties of life those troubled us then. Honesty, patriotism and truth were very important for us. We believed that success matters most when we get it through fair means.
We believe in the same things even today. Our success is not our own – there are many hands behind it. Those teachers who taught us. Those workers who kept the school clean. All of them matter to us. Our success has no value if we don’t respect them. We try to teach the same things to our children.
When we got married, our monthly expense was more than the value of the property that we had pledged. Both of us were young ; we loved each other dearly ; we had great loan to repay also !
Has my husband changed now ?
Has your husband changed after he came to the white house ?. This is what many people ask me. I tell them No. He is the same Barrack Obama whom I loved years before. He is the same man whom I see today. The one who gave up a lucrative job for providing leadership for those who came to the streets when a Steel Factory closed down. He is the same old man who came to the rescue of people in difficulties and fell into difficulties then. For him what is important is how much can I cause changes in the lives of people in my life than how much can I earn.
Even today he eats with all of us in the family in the night whatever urgency he has. He answers the questions posed by children patiently. After all of us go to bed, he would go to his desk and sit before the piles of letters written by people to attend to them. A father who has no money to pay his bills ; women dying from cancer having no money; letter written by a boy who says he had no hope left in life … I see concern for all these matters in his eyes. “You won’t believe if I were to tell you how difficult things are for certain people. This isn’t fair. There’s so much to do yet. We got to do something about it”, he would say to me.
We recollect those days we lived in utmost poverty. That optimism of his prompts him to work enthusiastically now. We never thought things would be the same after 4 years of our coming to the White House. But I love my husband today much more than ever before, whom I met 23 years before. He has not forgotten like where he started everything, and I love that part of him.
