Michelle Obama Announces Her Mother’s Death

Michelle Obama has announced that her mother, Marian Robinson, died yesterday at the age of 86.

The former First Lady shared the news in an Instagram post. “My mom Marian Robinson was my rock, always there for whatever I needed,” she wrote. “She was the same steady backstop for our entire family, and we are heartbroken to share she passed away today. We wanted to offer some reflections on her remarkable life.”

Alongside this touching caption, Obama posted a series of screenshots of a joint statement from her husband, former President Barack Obama, Craig Robinson (Michelle’s brother), his wife Kelly, and all of their children.

“Marian Lois Shields Robinson—our mother, mother-in-law, and grandmother—had a way of summing up the truths about life in a word or two, maybe a quick phrase that made everyone around her stop and think,” read the statement. “Her wisdom came off as almost innate, as something she was born with, but in reality it was hard-earned, fashioned by her deep understanding that the world’s roughest edges could always be sanded down with a little grace.”

This was followed by a brief history of Marian’s life. Born in Chicago one of seven children, she supported herself from a young age as a nursing aid. She later trained as a teacher and eventually worked as a secretary. She married Fraser Robinson—”another South-Sider with a boxer’s strength and jazz-lover’s cool”—in 1960 and the pair had two children, Craig and Michelle.

“On summer nights, she’d pack the family into the car with a steaming plate of chicken for a trip to the drive-in movies,” the statement continued fondly. “On New Year’s Eve, she’d pass around pigs in a blanket and raise a toast to Auld Lang Syne. And every night, for years on end, she and Fraser would hold court at the dinner table, where they indulged all manner of questioning, teaching their children to believe in the power and worth of their own voices.”

Their statement continued on, explaining how Marian had remained a vital member of the family throughout Barack and Michelle’s political careers. “On Election Night in 2008, when the news broke that Barack would soon shoulder the weight of the world, she was there, holding his hand,” they wrote.

The statement concluded, “In our sadness, we are lifted up by the extraordinary gift of her life. And we will spend the rest of ours trying to live up to her example.”