Time

"The biggest mistake I made was not being at my mother's bedside when she died. She was in Hawaii in a hospital, and we didn't know how fast it was going to take, and I didn't get there in time." - Barack Obama

It is unusual for a candidate to leave the campaign for 36 hours, but perfectly understandable for Obama to do just that at the end of this week, to visit his grandmother in Hawaii. The Obama campaign says she is "gravely ill" and Obama's decision to suspend campaigning tells us how grave the situation is. Obama's maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, is 85. She and her husband bought Obama up during those crucial adolescent years. He moved from Indonesia to Hawaii to live with them when he was 10, and stayed until he left for college. The man he is is due to a large extent on the woman she is. Obama has spoken many times of his mother teaching him about empathy. For probably the best news report I have read about the campaign, see the New York Times piece on Obama's mother here. [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/us/politics/14obama.html]