For Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson, 2024 was tough, after losing their mother Marian Robinson in May at the age of 86.
Marian was a beloved member of the White House during her daughter and son-in-law Barack Obama’s eight-year tenure, becoming a caregiver first and foremost for their two daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama.
During an appearance on the NPR radio show Wild Card, hosted by Rachel Martin, the former First Lady, 61, emotionally spoke about loss and grief, especially with regards to her mother’s passing and her own views on mortality.
“My husband thinks this is morbid, but at 61, you know, if I am lucky, if I am truly blessed, I have like 25 more summers,” she said when asked about her musings on death. “And I’m at the stage of life where I want the next 10 years to go by slowly. Because guess what? I love life. I love my life.”
The mom-of-two then remembered the final year of her mother’s life, when she was sick and being treated at the family home in Hawai’i. “Her body was just shutting down for a number of various reasons,” Michelle recalled.
“We were sitting on the couch watching one of her court shows ’cause she liked court shows,” she continued. “And she was realizing that, you know, she will not ever be the same old self that she was. She was starting to realize she’s coming to the end.”
© Getty Images“And this woman that prepared me for death and talked to me about all this stuff and was like, ‘I’m ready to die — old people are around too long, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,’ she leaned over to me and she said, ‘Wow, this went fast.'”
The heartbroken Michelle added: “And I held her hand, I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ And she said, ‘Life.’ She said, ‘This went fast.’ And this was the woman who was ready.”
© Getty ImagesThe 3-word reaction, “this went fast,” put things into perspective for Michelle, who realized that no matter how much time you get, you’ll always want more because there’s never enough opportunity to fulfill all the things you want. And it gave her the inspiration to make the best of what time you’ve got.
“And what that told me was that even when you tell yourself you’re ready, if you’re living a good life, you are never really ready for it to end, right?”
© Getty ImagesShe concluded: “So I hope I feel that way, even though I will be ready for it, because it’s been good and purposeful, that I’ll feel like, ‘[expletive] I wish I had more time.’ So I’m trying to live my life like that, you know?”
Michelle also stated during her conversation: “With 25 more summers, I wanna feel each one of them. I wanna be like, ‘Woo, this year. Woo. This was slow.’ It’s like, ‘I didn’t do much of anything. Did I accomplish anything? I got bored. I read another book. Ugh, it took forever…'”
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