Of course I’m talking about President
Obama’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Marian Robinson.
It was just last week Mrs. Robinson returned
from a one-week visit to China.
She had accompanied daughter,
Michelle Obama, our First Lady, along with granddaughters Sasha and Malia (the
President and Mrs. Obama's daughters) on their trip promoting education.
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| Me on the Great Wall - February 2002 |
In 2002, I traveled to Beijing, Xi’an,
and Guilin, China. This month, it
was a thrill to see media coverage of Mrs. Robinson visiting many of the sites I
toured on my dream-of-a-lifetime trip. Keeping up with them via
news, TV, Internet, and Twitter I re-lived my amazing time in China. (Oh how I searched for a photo I could use of Mrs. Robinson on her trip.)
News columnists reported the family of our
President was well received by the Chinese government and the general
population. I don’t know if it is a
correct designation to call them emissaries, but I appreciated them as wonderful
emissaries of the United States of America.
And, I say Marian Robinson is
a grandmother whose presence, energy, and demeanor quietly influence not only young
people in her family, but surely those in our nation, and children worldwide. To this grandmother, she is a parenting role
model worthy of tribute. What a joy it has been to observe
history in the making by an exemplary grandmother, a contemporary of mine, and,
yes, of my African heritage.
On this last day of Woman’s
History Month 2014, I applaud with great pride, our nations ‘First
Grandmother’, Mrs. Marian Robinson, a living national treasure.
